Error in Russian News Network Article

On May 16, 2010, a reporter from the Russian News Network made an error about the alliance between Pakistan, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Firstly, they mentioned that this alliance included the US. This is by no means true. I made it clear in my White Paper reaction that I was offered a deal by the President Obama that involved China's support on NATO sanctions, but I declined. The alliance only includes Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China. Also, the reporter said that this alliance was formed for the purpose of resolving the crisis. While China is trying to solve the crisis, the alliance was formed solely for the purpose of fighting terrorism in the countries of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

White Paper Reaction

China was very happy that other Security Council members expressed the same desire to fight terrorism that we have. We have continued our talks with Russia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to come to an exclusive agreement between the four of us. However, other countries have confronted China to make agreements as well. Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey expressed interests in purchasing bomb-detecting trucks that Pakistan recently purchased from us. On the other hand, China was forced to decline an offer we received from the US. President Obama made efforts on Friday to get China’s support on NATO decisions regarding Syria. This was a hard decision to turn down not only because we agree with their sanctions on Syria, but also because this agreement would have improved our relations with he US that we have been trying to strengthen for many years. However, the offer conflicted with a promise that we made with Russia. China’s relations with Russia come first. Russia has been our main and most supportive ally and we must consider them in all decisions we make. Regarding the situation with Syria, we are very disappointment with the way they have handled this crisis. They have said they are disappointed with Hezbollah’s actions, but yet will not discontinue their funding. They tried to defend themselves by saying that they only support Hezbollah’s humanitarian efforts, but it is unclear as to why Syria cannot fund these humanitarian efforts themselves. This seems very suspicious, and because of this, China will be cutting back their support of Syria. Our projects of building a hydraulic power station and a textile mill in Syria will be suspended indefinitely. We hope this will allow us to continue our fight against terrorism, because like I made clear in the meeting on Friday, terrorism has extremely affected the progress of developing nations not only in the Middle East, but also around the World.

White Paper

Executive Summary:
Turkey recently witnessed an attack by Hezbollah at Incirlik Air Base on Tuesday, May 11th, 2010. 135 people were killed (including Americans, Turks, and Britons) and many more were injured. This attack caused a large amount of damage to a very strategic location, but also caused additional tension to the Middle East region as a whole. After a few days of consulting with our fellow Security Council members, the following statement has been drawn up:

Key points:

• Causes of Tension: The Middle East has been extremely affected by terrorism ever since World War II. One of the reasons for this is because of the conflicting desires of both Western influence by some people and strict Muslim theocracies for others. Turkey is a country that built their country off of Western influence and the one of the goals of many Middle Eastern terrorist groups is to install strict Muslim theocracies and eliminate Western influence.

• Crackdown on Terrorism: Terrorism has become too much of a problem to be let go much longer. After such a terrible terrorist attack in Turkey, the time is right to start making changes. China and Russia have been engaging in discussions with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to start the fight against terrorism. Our intentions are only good in order to improve the Middle Eastern region.

• Protection of Nuclear Weapons: The Hezbollah spokesman that was interviewed by Breaking News Network earlier today was very explicit about their intentions to obtain nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are important for countries to have. However, it is vital that they be handled with care and are not abused. It would be catastrophic if nuclear weapons fell into the hands of a country or group of people who had poor intentions for using them. China and Russia are both going to extreme measures to protect their nuclear weapons and will also be helping Pakistan protect theirs. However, ALL countries need to consider their own safety because there is a major risk at this point in time.

• Conclusion: The recent crisis has shown that terrorism is the main threat in the Middle East at this time. We will be doing all we can to first, protect ourselves and keep our nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. Then, our next priority is to keep up our negotiations with Russia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia until we come to an agreement that fulfills our mutual desire to abolish terrorism. Because of our current economic problems, we are limited in terms of money. However, we are still eager to provide as much funding, military personnel, or technological assets as we can at the moment to support our allies. China and Russia both feel very strongly towards the matter of terrorism because it is detrimental to the progress of developing nations. Therefore, we will hesitate to use our veto power during the resolution process if we object in any way.

Reaction Statement

We were very happy with the UN meeting on Tuesday because we feel that a lot of progress was made. The rest of the Security Council showed a lot of support for both Turkey and for peace in the Middle East as a whole. We are also very happy with Turkey’s decision not to give into the terrorists’ desires and to keep their strong ties to the West. They cannot give the terrorists any power because it would be detrimental to our ultimate goal to abolish terrorism. Turkey has shown a lot of strength and confidence in their secular government and hopefully, they are successful in rebuilding and improving their security around the air base. Pakistan and Israel showed their support in eliminating terrorism within their borders. Major terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah in Israel and the Taliban in Pakistan have caused a lot of damage in the Middle East. With determination from Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Zardari to remove terrorism within their countries will do much good in our efforts against terrorism. We are also glad to see Iran offering aid to Turkey. We hope they keep up their cooperation throughout the resolution process. Progress is clearly being made in the investigations to determine who the facilitators of Tuesday’s attack were. Until definite conclusions are made, China will continue to speak to Russia, the United States, and other nations to start working towards a resolution.

Crisis Statement

As we all know, Turkey was the victim of a terrible tragedy yesterday afternoon as many were killed and wounded in the bombing at Incirlik Air Base in Southern Turkey. Speaking for the whole country of China, our hearts go out those who were killed, their families and friends, and the country of Turkey as a whole for experiencing such a terrible crisis. This matter needs to be acted on quickly because terrorism is not a topic to be handled lightly. Terrorist groups run the Middle East and it is unacceptable to let them get away with this attack. However, before any major action is taken place, it is vital that we find out who the facilitators of the attack were. It is crucial to know exactly who was behind this because without total knowledge of the event that took place, the UN will not be able to come to a true resolution to the problem, nor will we be able to make as much progress as possible in stabilizing the region. We expect that Al-Qaeda is behind this because a Yemini connection to the bombers was detected and Al-Qaeda has a major base in Yemen. However, we cannot know for sure until more research is done and until we know the identity of each of the three truck drivers who set off the bombs. So, until we receive any more knowledge about the situation at hand, we will be speaking to our allies throughout the week and doing as much work as we can at the moment to start working towards a resolution.

Country Foreign Relations Research

1. Britain – China maintains diplomatic relations with Britain, and they are friends, but like the United States, Britain has not become legitimate allies with them because of their communist government, human rights violations, etc.

2. China – N/A

3. Egypt – Egypt is looking to strengthen their country by trying to develop relationships with China. Nothing has been made official, but the relationship has been developing smoothly.

4. France – Diplomatic relations, but not allies. They don’t support China’s communist government, human violations, etc.

5. Germany – Same as France, Britain, U.S. They are not allies, but talk with each other and maintain a relationship to certain extents.

6. Iran – China and Iran are very close friends. Iran is one of China’s main contacts in the Middle East. Iran supplies them with oil, and China supplies weapons in return. China supports Iran, but there are questions about China’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program.

7. Israel – China and Israel have diplomatic relationships, are involved with trade, and provide each other with various services, but they are not official allies. China is close with the Palestinians, so their relationship with Israel is limited. There is also speculation (especially by the US) about the military cooperation that Israel and China share as well.

8. Pakistan – Pakistan and China are close friends. China provides military support to Pakistan’s army and they have also supported Pakistan in their conflict with India.

9. Russia – China has improved their relations with Russia since the Soviet Era when they were in competition. They have resolved border disputes and are now fully cooperative with each other. Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation signed in 2001.

10. Saudi Arabia – China has recently become very close with Saudi Arabia. They are major trading partners. Saudi Arabia (like Iran) supplies a lot of oil to China.

11. Syria – China and Syria are friendly with each other. They do a lot of trading, and China has helped with infrastructure projects in Syria. China has an embassy in Damascus and Syria has an embassy in Beijing.

12. Turkey – China and Turkey have diplomatic relations with each other, but there has been conflict between the two because of recent conflicts in China concerning the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (who are a Turkish people).

13. United States – The U.S. is friendly with China, but they are not allies. They helped China transition into the global community and led them along the path to their current success. However there are reasons that have kept China and the U.S. from being allies. China is communist, has a lot of human rights violations, and is owed billions by the U.S. There is some spying that takes place between the two.

Country Research Questions

1. form of government and name of your current leader

· President Hu Jintao

· Communist

2. type of economy, current level of prosperity

· Communist in theory

· Capitalist Market Economy in practice (reforms in 1980s)

· GDP (2008) - $4.22 trillion

· Industry – 46% on China’s GDP

· Agriculture – 13% of GDP, but over 40% of China’s labor force

3. social values/issues: (class; gender roles; family structures; cultural values, etc.)

· Overpopulation has led to China’s enforcing only one child per family (two in some cases)

· Social values come from ideas of Confucianism and Taoism

· Starting to develop a more Western social structure (breaking away from equality of Communism)

· Men are more respected than women still (women work in household while men support the family)

· Uyghurs in Xinjiang rebellions (want independence from Han)

4. major religion(s), with %

· Taoism – 23.9%

· Buddhism – 7.5%

· Muslim – 1.5%

· Protestant – 1.1%

· Catholic – .4%

5. major ethnic group(s), with %

· Han Chinese – 91.5%

· Other ethnic groups – 8.5% (Uyghurs about 7 million)

6. key events in your 20^th c. history that might affect your policy decisions today, and how

· Mau Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” sparked industry and agriculture and China which both play huge part’s in China’s economy today. The Great Leap Forward itself may have failed, but some of the ideas still are alive today.

· Mao’s Cultural Revolution was a disaster because of the millions killed. China has kept communism in theory, but has moved closer to capitalism since then. They aren’t nearly as radical today as they were in the Mao Era

· The incident at Tiananmen Square has led China to open up their economy more (led by Deng Xiaoping’s drive for capitalism)

7. your key current issues (include detail-you’ll need to refer to these)

· Overpopulation (almost 1.5 billion) – China is making a lot of changes to try and slow down the rate of population growth

· Environment – industry has caused a lot of problems with carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions

· Uyghur rebellions – recent rebellions in Xinjiang to get independence

· Strong allies with Iran – China has said that they are concerned about nuclear weapons program in Iran, but they cooperate with each other (no problems yet)

8. membership in major international or regional organizations (i.e. UN, G-12, NATO, EU, Arab League, etc.)?

· UN – permanent Security Council member

· NO NATO or G-12

9. military strength? do you have nuclear weapons?

· People’s Liberation Army

· Army, Navy, Air Force

· Nuclear Weapons Program

· International arms exporter