The Obama administration called Thursday for hefty tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels and cells, arguing China has been illegally “dumping” under-priced products on the U.S. market.

The preliminary ruling by the U.S. Department of Commerce seeks tariffs ranging from 31% to 250% on solar products imported from China. A final decision is expected later this year.

The trade case has divided the U.S. solar industry. Some manufacturers say China’s subsidies have made it difficult for them to compete, causing several bankruptcies such as Solyndra’s. Other U.S. solar companies say tariffs could hike solar panel prices, inflame trade tensions and stunt the industry’s growth.

Commerce’s ruling “is a bellwether decision,” Steve Ostrenga, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Helios Solar Works, said in a statement. “It underscores the importance of domestic manufacturing to the U.S. economy and will help determine whether the country will be a global competitor in clean technologies or outsource them China. It is also critically important for thousands of U.S. workers.”

Other U.S. solar companies said they would push for much lower tariffs,. They argue most solar-industry jobs are in sales, marketing, design, installation, engineering and maintenance of solar projects and higher solar prices could result in layoffs.  [Green House]

You can read more at the link but I suspect this may just be once again election year politics because the final decision for the tariffs does not happen until November after the US Presidential election.  I will be surprised if we ever see the 31% tariffs being proposed by the Commerce Department.

“The Koreans stole Dano from us, and now they’re stealing our cabbages,” say Chinese netizens, according to the Korea Times, following a report that the UN’s Codex Alimentarius Commission will decide to adopt the name “kimchi cabbage” as an international standard for the cabbage formerly known as “Chinese”.  [London Korean Links]

My sense is that it’s too early to be certain, so let’s establish as much certainty as we can. That’s why Congress has the power to issue subpoenas and compel testimony. When Hillary Clinton returns from Beijing, she should be given enough time to unpack and freshen up before being summoned to testify. She should bring Ambassador Locke with her. It is just possible — but difficult — to imagine a circumstance in which his resignation does not become an imperative.  [One Free Korea]

You can read a whole lot more at the link.

South Korea has asked China to verify claims that a missile launcher displayed by North Korea last weekend is of Chinese origin, in a potential violation of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang, a senior Seoul official said Friday.

North Korea unveiled a new long-range ballistic missile on Sunday during a mass military parade, carried aboard the 16-wheel transporter-erector-launcher (TEL). Some analysts believe the new vehicle is based on a design from a Chinese truck factory that produces such launchers.

If confirmed, China’s technology assistance could violate U.N. Security Council resolutions passed in 2006 and 2009, which ban states, including China, from supplying any arms-related materials to North Korea. China has denied any wrongdoing.
“We are asking the Chinese side to verify the claims with regard to the North Korean truck launcher through a diplomatic channel,” the foreign ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

South Korean officials have been studying the images of the North’s new truck launcher, but the claims “have not been verified yet,” the official said.

Leading defense journal IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly reported this week the U.N. Security Council “will pursue inqury” into the suspected involvement by China in North Korea’s missile program, citing an official close to a Council committee established to monitor North Korean sanction breaches.

The defense journal said the North’s truck launcher is apparently based on a design from the 9th Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, or the Chinese truck factory.  [Yonhap]

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has also called out the Chinese for their assistance of North Korea’s missile program:

China has provided some assistance to North Korea’s missile program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, a week after the hermit state’s failed rocket launch triggered international condemnation.

Under United Nations Security Council resolutions from 2006 and 2009, states, including China, are banned from helping North Korea with its ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities as well as supplying heavy weapons.

Beijing has denied it has broken any rules, although a modern missile transporter seen in Sunday’s military parade to celebrate the founder of North Korea was said by some western military experts to be of Chinese design and possibly origin.

“I’m sure there’s been some help coming from China. I don’t know, you know, the exact extent of that,” Panetta told members of the House Armed Services Committee when asked whether China had been supporting North Korea’s missile program through “trade and technology exchanges”  [Reuters]

Some how I doubt the UN, South Korea, or the US will do anything other than make statements showing their displeasure with the Chinese which once again shows what little use these UN resolutions are.

A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced the captain of a Chinese fishing boat to 30 years in prison for murdering a South Korean coast guard officer during a confrontation in the Yellow Sea last year.

The court in the port of Incheon also handed down prison terms to several other crew members of the Chinese vessel, which the South Korean coast guard officials boarded on December 12 because they suspected it of fishing illegally.

The skipper of the fishing boat, Cheng Dawei, was convicted of stabbing the coast guard officer, Lee Cheng-ho, several times with a knife. Lee later died of his injuries and another coast guard official was wounded in the encounter.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Cheng, 43, but the court chose to give him a lengthy prison term and a fine of 20 million won, or about $17,500.

Nine other Chinese sailors received sentences of one and a half to five years for their roles in the clash, according to Judge Rho Jong-chan, a spokesman for the court.

Liu Weimin, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday that China and South Korea had not agreed upon the demarcation of exclusive economic zones in the Yellow Sea. As a result, he said, China “does not accept” South Korea’s application of its law to reach “such a verdict.”

Speaking at a regular news conference, Liu said China would continue to follow the case closely and “provide necessary assistance to the Chinese citizens concerned to protect their legitimate rights and interests.”  [CNN]

So basically the Chinese position is that their fishermen have the right to attack and murder Korean coast guard personnel and violate Korean territorial waters.  This puts their thinking in line with Chinese netizens that think the same thing.

What will be interesting to see is whether or not the Korean government allows these fishermen to go free after the Korean media and public is no longer paying attention due to Chinese pressure?

India said Thursday it had successfully launched a missile with nuclear capability and a 3,100-mile range, giving it the ability to strike Beijing and Shanghai, and heightening fears of an Asian arms race.

With the successful launching of the missile, called Agni 5, India joins a small group of countries with long-range nuclear missile capability, including China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States. “Agni” means fire in Hindi.

The launching comes amid growing international apprehension about militarization of Asia and a stepped-up strategic rivalry between the United States and China in Asia. In March, China announced a double-digit increase in military spending, while India recently became the world’s top arms buyer, bumping China from the top spot, in part because China increased domestic production.

Thursday’s launching “increases the perception of an arms race, and the reality of an arms race, in East Asia, particularly between China and India,” said Graeme Herd, head of the international security program at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, which trains diplomats in peace and security.

The timing of the missile launching may be seen as particularly antagonistic, he said, coming as China’s government deals with a scandal involving one of its top officials, and after the United States has stepped up its military presence in the Pacific. “All of this, from the Chinese perspective, looks like a movement from balancing China to containing China,” Mr. Herd said, and could inspire China to strengthen its weapons stockpile further, forge closer ties with Pakistan and delve deeper into Afghanistan.

The launching was largely celebrated in India, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it “another milestone in our quest to add to the credibility of our security and preparedness and to continuously explore the frontiers of science.” The entire nation honors the scientists involved, he said, who have “done the country proud.”

Defense Minister A.K. Antony said India had “joined the elite club of nations,” which possess long-range missiles.  [NY Times]

Yet, analysts have long questioned the effectiveness of sanctions against North Korea. Some analysts said Tuesday that China may have violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by providing 16-wheeled missile-launching vehicles that were seen in a military parade in Pyongyang on Sunday carrying a new type of missile.

Ted Parsons of IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly pointed out similarities to a known Chinese vehicle: “The same windscreen design, the same four windscreen wiper configuration, the same door and handle design, a very similar grill area, almost the same front bumper lighting configuration, and the same design for the cabin steps.”

He added that the involvement of a Chinese vehicle builder “in North Korea’s missile program would require approval from the highest levels of the Chinese government and the People’s Liberation Army.”

James Hardy, also at Jane’s Defense Weekly, said that if confirmed, China’s involvement would breach a 2009 Security Council resolution that prohibits supplying North Korea with “any arms or related matériel, or providing financial transactions, technical training, services or assistance related to such arms.”  [New York Times]

The missile being discussed is likely the same mobile ICBM that Defense Secretary Panetta disclosed to Congress late last year.

China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai (R) and his wife Gu Kailai

The British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader’s wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said.

It was the first time a specific motive has been revealed for Neil Heywood’s murder last November, a death which ended Chinese leader Bo Xilai’s hopes of emerging as a top central figure and threw off balance the Communist Party’s looming leadership succession.

Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.

She accused him of being greedy and hatched a plan to kill him after he said he could expose her dealings, one of the sources said, summarizing the police case. Both sources have spoken to investigators in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese city where Heywood was killed and where Bo had cast himself as a crime-fighting Communist Party leader.  [Reuters]

You can read the rest at the link but it appears to be unclear if Bo was involved with the murder but there seems to be pretty good evidence that he tried to cover up his wife’s involvement as well as being corrupt himself.  It will be interesting to see what happens with this case.  I wonder if the Chinese government will try and make an example of Bo Xilai or will they circle the wagons around him because he could possibly expose corruption among the Chinese inner circle as well?

The Philippines and China continued looking for a diplomatic solution to a naval standoff on Thursday, even as Manila sent a second vessel to disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Philippines Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raul Hernandez said a coast guard boat has been sent to the Scarborough Shoal, located about 230 km off the northwestern Philippines.

It will join the Philippine Navy’s largest vessel, the U.S.-built Gregorio del Pilar, which since Tuesday has been in a standoff with two Chinese surveillance vessels that blocked the arrest of a group of Chinese fishermen there.

Both sides say they prefer to solve the situation diplomatically, but warn that they will take further steps to protect their sovereign rights to the group of islands, which are known as Panatag in the Philippines, and as Huangyan Island in China.  [Chosun Ilbo]

It looks to me like the Chinese are trying to provoke an over response from the Philippines using these fishing boats in order to build up domestic support to militarily push their claims over the various islands in the South China Sea.  Looking on Google Earth the Scarborough Shoal is no where near China and off the coast of the Philippines.  Here is one of the pictures posted on Google Earth of the shoal which appears to be a more impressive rock formation than Dokdo:

What I find interesting is that the pictures posted on Google Earth is by someone from China claiming the shoal for China which has ignited an online conflict between Chinese and Filipino commenters on the various pictures.  It makes me wonder if the Chinese government is deliberately having people post these pictures and comments?

Oh by the way I also noticed on Google Earth that not to far from the shoal is a Vietnamese oil rig which makes me believe this is about more than just fishing grounds.

Senior British military officers and Ministry of Defence officials are understood to have been among those who accepted “friend requests” from the bogus account for American Admiral James Stavridis.

They thought they had become genuine friends of Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander – but instead every personal detail on Facebook, including private email addresses, phone numbers and pictures were able to be harvested.

Nato officials are reluctant to say publicly wo was behind the attack. But the Sunday Telegraph has learned that in classified briefings, military officers and diplomats were told the evidence pointed to “state-sponsored individuals in China”.

Although they are unlikely to have found any genuine military secrets from the Facebook accounts they accessed , the incident is highly embarrassing.

In the wake of it Nato has advised senior officers and officials to open their own social networking pages to prevent a repeat of the security breach.  [Telegraph]