Suchergebnisse

"In this ethnographic narrative of subsistence on the Tibetan plateau, anthropologist Gillian Tan describes the life-worlds of Tibetan nomads in a region traditionally known as Kham. The people of Dora Karmo (Circle of White Stones) are pastoralists who move with their yaks from pasture to pasture and depend on the milk production of their herd for sustenance. Tan's story, based her on own experience of living through seasonal cycles with the people of Dora Karmo between 2006 and 2013, examines the community's powerful relationship with a Buddhist lama and their interactions with external agents of change. As Buddhists, they believe in the never-ending cycle of life and death through reincarnation. Death, then, is not regarded as permanent loss but as the opportunity for continual change. Portrayals of personal loss through natural causes and revenge feuds, as well as sky burials, illustrate how impermanence permeates daily life. These pastoralists have adapted since 1959 to conditions imposed by the Chinese state through a combination of acquiescence, strategy, and resistance. They have also started to participate in the markets of a rapidly modernizing China, and in projects of international development that originate outside their own belief systems and social structures. In showing how the people of Dora Karmo perceive their environment and dwell in their world, Tan calls on development agents to consider this different worldview before they initiate projects among and for nomads"--Provided by publisher

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government works hard to promote an image of ethnic harmony in China and downplays ethnic conflict by carefully controlling public information and debate about ethnic affairs. Despite such efforts, the recent clashes in Tibetan areas in 2008 and violent riots in Urumqi in 2009 reveal the weaknesses of this approach. This paper surveys the broad themes of ethnic propaganda (民族宣传, minzu xuanchuan) in present-day China, looking at the organisations involved, the systems of information management they utilise, and the current "go" and "no-go" zones for debate. The paper forms part of a larger study of the politics of ethnicity in China. It is based on primary- and secondary-source research in Chinese, secondary sources in English, and extensive interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and scholars regarding China's ethnic affairs conducted during fieldwork in China in 2002, 2004, 2005-2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012. Ethnic issues in China concern not only the minority peoples there, but also the majority Han - hence, my definition of ethnic propaganda incorporates materials relating to all of China's ethnic groups. The paper uses the events in Tibetan areas in 2008 and in Urumqi as case studies to demonstrate how these policies play out in periods of crisis. It concludes with a discussion of the role that ethnic propaganda plays in maintaining China's long-term political stability and its international affairs. (JCCA/GIGA)

Drawing on the literature on strategic hedging and adapting it to China's use of economic diplomacy in the service of comprehensive national security goals within the regionalised foreign policy approach of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we examine China's approach to securing and expanding its interests in the Persian Gulf. To implement the trade and infrastructure connectivity goals of the BRI and to secure the continued flow of diversified energy supplies, China needs to boost relations with both regional powerhouses, Iran and Saudi Arabia, without alienating either of them or the regional hegemon, the United States. The resulting strategy of strategic hedging is based in the Chinese approach to economic diplomacy, which utilises Chinese commercial actors in the service of national strategic objectives. Relations require careful and ongoing management if China is to achieve outcomes which benefit all sides while avoiding becoming entangled in the region's intractable geopolitical problems. (JCCA/GIGA)

The world's largest growth potential among fossil fuels is attributed to liquefied natural gas (LNG). Due to the important role of the gas price at the U.S. trading point Henry Hub (HH) for U.S. LNG exports to Western Europe, the question arises, how gas flows and gas prices are changing at the beginning of the 2030s in Western Europe if the price at HH is higher or lower than expected. Furthermore, the effect on the volumes of U.S. LNG exports to Western Europe is analysed.