LPH 909 - Hyper Mix (1993-2023)
2 hours ago
Thursday, 2 December 2010
The State of The Music Industry & the Delegitimization of Artists
Part I: Music Purchases and Net Revenue For Artists Are Up, Gross Revenue for Labels is Down
Upcoming chapters:
Part II: The Impact of DMCA Streams and why they should be considered
Part III: How a skewed perspective delegitimizes artists
Part IV: The Growth Phase is Over? Improved Label Margins.
Part V: When Good Laws Turn Bad
Part VI: The Hills are alive…..
Did you hear? The success artists are having doesn't count. The music industry is over. Fewer albums are selling; revenue is down; the music being released is “crap”; everyone just steals music; the subscription services didn't take off; the RIAA is suing music fans; there are huge layoffs at the major labels; artists sell no music and make no money….it's a broken record.
The problem is, most of this is simply not true. Even worse, this perspective delegitimizes and hurts artists and the music industry. There is a lot “right” going on.
Based on what we have been hearing, most have no idea that music purchases are up over 50% from 2006 to 2009...
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Jeff Price @'tunecore'
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on WikiLeaks
But let me – let me just offer some perspective as somebody who’s been at this a long time. Every other government in the world knows the United States government leaks like a sieve, and it has for a long time. And I dragged this up the other day when I was looking at some of these prospective releases. And this is a quote from John Adams: “How can a government go on, publishing all of their negotiations with foreign nations, I know not. To me, it appears as dangerous and pernicious as it is novel.”
When we went to real congressional oversight of intelligence in the mid-’70s, there was a broad view that no other foreign intelligence service would ever share information with us again if we were going to share it all with the Congress. Those fears all proved unfounded.
Now, I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think – I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.
Many governments – some governments deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation. So other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another. Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.
Full transcript
(Thanx Son#1!)
HA!
jeremyscahill Shit. Amazon just canceled my order of 250,000 classified cables. Should have bought the Kindle version. #cablegate
The bacteria in your gut can store more data than your hard drive
Bacteria have the potential to store a lot of data. One single gram of e.coli could theoretically hold something like a million gigabytes of information, while one gram of the stuff that your computer's hard drive is made of can store about four gigs, if you're lucky. The way that the data gets stored is basically the same, though: your hard drive stores data magnetically by converting them into zeros and ones, while bacteria store data chemically by converting them into nucleotides and making DNA.
The problem with storing DNA data in bacteria is that there's a physical limit to the amount of data that each DNA strand (and each bacterium) can hold. The solution, of course, is to chop your data up into lots of little pieces of DNA, and give each piece to a different individual bacterium. When you do this, you also have to give each piece an address of sorts, so that you'll know how to put all the random pieces back together the right way. This sounds like a pain to have to do, and it is, but it has the side effect of encrypting your data pretty well, since without the address key, there's no way to put all the DNA snippets back in the right order.
Once you've got your DNA-encoded data inside your bacteria, it doesn't bother them in the least. They'll just go about their happy little bacteria lives, oblivious to the fact that they're being hijacked as hard drives. And when they reproduce, they'll duplicate your data at the same time, providing a massive amount of redundancy.
So now that you've got a couple million bacteria wandering around with all of your data in their tummies, how do you actually get it back out again? It's not so hard, as long as you have a fancy next-generation high-throughput DNA sequencer. The poor e.coli who have been loyally storing your data for you get all squished up and run through a machine that can read their DNA, and it spits out a big long list of all of those individually addressed pieces. Put them back together, and there you go, it's your data.
Now, the important question: what, exactly, are the chances of this random DNA causing the e.coli to mutate into some superbacteria that will destroy all life as we know it? Apparently, pretty low. Not nonexistent, mind you, but it most likely won't happen.
Most likely.
Evan Ackerman @'Dvice'
WikiLeaks: Secrets shared with millions are not secret
But that was another century. The leaker then, Daniel Ellsberg, was not breaching secrecy for its own sake, unlike the WikiLeakers of today; he was looking to defeat a specific government policy. Moreover, he was acutely conscious of the risks of disclosure and did not distribute documents betraying live diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting. And it took him years to find a credible medium of distribution, which is now available at the push of a button. The government cried damage and suffered almost none; Ellsberg wanted to hasten peace and failed.
This week's dump of documents seems more likely to complicate America's diplomacy and may more surely damage some national interests. But damage is a two-sided coin. Secrecy can also hurt mightily and information is a volatile commodity: its effects are simply unpredictable. Disclosure may defeat a worthy policy but a secret may protect unworthy ends. Government should not be gratuitously hampered but its discomfort should never shield it from accountability.
The right standard for managing this uneasy balance was asserted in the Pentagon papers case by the late Justice Potter Stewart, when he wrote for the decisive centre of the US supreme court. He was sure the Pentagon papers' publication was not in the national interest, he said, but he could not find that it would "surely result in direct, immediate and irreparable harm to our Nation or its people". So despite repeated demands that we emulate Britain and criminalise the publication of official secrets, Stewart's tough test still governs the tense collaboration and competition between the American government and press.
Whatever any leaker's official culpability, the New York Times has prevailed in America's courts by proving that sophisticated reportage of foreign affairs routinely requires officials and reporters to traffic in classified secrets. The sad fact is that these technical breaches of security are essential to public understanding of current events and also to government's achievement of public support. So government has acquired the habit of classifying everything it does, thinks, plans or contemplates in the realm of foreign policy and must then break its vows and help to unravel those secrets to advance its purposes.
As Justice Stewart shrewdly observed, the checks and balances governing domestic politics are sadly absent in the realm of foreign affairs. Congress is easily browbeaten into patriotic silence when the war drums roll. Even our courts are thoughtlessly deferential to presidential prerogative when the national interest is invoked. That is why Stewart held that "the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry – in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government".
A wise government would therefore decide – for moral, political and practical reasons – to insist on avoiding secrecy for its own sake. "For when everything is classified, then nothing is classified, and the system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless, and to be manipulated by those intent on self-protection or self-promotion ... Secrecy can best be preserved only when credibility is truly maintained."
And here we are at his predicted destination. Lead us secretly into one war too many, and see how we wallow in one or another disclosure too many.
Of course it will sting if some foreign leaders hesitate for a time before exchanging confidences with US officials. Diplomats may lose face, or even careers, for having written indiscreetly about their hosts. But there are few facts or observations in these leaks that a US official would not confide, without attribution, to a respected journalist.
As Dean Rusk, a former secretary of state, once told me, there was really little in his cables that he had not already read in the Times. It is hardly news that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not securely held; or that Sunni Arabs dread a nuclear-armed Shiite regime and would gladly hold our coats while we fight Iran; or that China covets Iran's oil more than it fears North Korea's military sales. It is mainly the direct quotation or loose formulation of those confidential messages that risks some damage.
Mindful of such possible damage to foreign informants or intelligence methods, the papers given the WikiLeaks files censored certain passages and heeded some concerns of the US government. But facing a flood of documents on the internet, the papers had an obligation to publish well-digested accounts of the material. Information once lost to a government cannot be returned like stolen goods; by definition it informs those who receive it.
So the theft of secrets may be deplorable, and their massive concerted distribution may appear irresponsible. While the journalist in me recognises a clear duty to publish and be damned, the citizen in me also recognises a mess too far. I well know that no family, business or government can function without some genuine secrets. The trick is to focus on the genuine and to treat truly essential secrets accordingly.
Governments must finally acknowledge that secrets shared with millions of "cleared" officials, including lowly army clerks, are not secret. They must decide that the random rubber-stamping of millions of papers and computer files each year does not a security system make. What common sense has so far failed to teach, technology will surely now command. Chase away the WikiLeaks enterprise and another web-savvy crowd will reopen for business within hours. The threat of massive leaks will persist so long as there are massive secrets. An ambassador needing to protect a confidence needs to limit his audience to a few superiors. A diplomat looking to educate the government at large needs to hide his authorship of widely circulated reportage.
It is up to government, not the press, to guard its secrets as long as it can, and to adjust to a new reality when it fails. It is the duty of the press to publish what it learns, and to find news where it can when it is denied.
Max Frankel @'The Guardian'
Moritz Von Oswald Trio meet Mala on new single
Everyone likes a shock collaboration, right?
Just uploaded to the Honest Jon’s (recently crowned one of our 10 best labels of the year) website, audio of a new single by the Moritz Von Oswald trio – the three-piece of nsi’s Max Loderbauer, Vladislav Delay (aka Luomo) and Moritz Von Oswald of Rhythm & Sound and Basic Channel fame.
Interesting news in itself, given the musicians involved and the quality of the two albums they’ve released in the last year and a half, Vertical Ascent and Live in New York, but given more spice by the addition of a certain Mala – yes, Mala of dubstep legends Digital Mystikz – who contributes a remix, or rather a “rebuild” to the single’s B-side, with “synths and other additions”.
You can stream clips of both sides, and check the artwork, by Will ‘Trilogy Tapes’ Bankhead, below.
Stream: Moritz Von Oswald Trio – Restructure 2
Stream: Moritz Von Oswald Trio – Restructure 2 (Mala rebuild)
NaomiAKlein where was this concern about privacy when climate scientists' emails were being stolen? And Bush was illegally wiretapping? #wikileaks
Lawyer slams 'persecution' as Interpol hunts WikiLeaks chief
The lawyer of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Wednesday his client was being persecuted for publishing embarrassing US diplomatic cables as Interpol called for his arrest over rape accusations.
As Washington tried to calm new outbursts of anger from world leaders over the leaks, France-based Interpol said it had alerted all member states to arrest Julian Assange, who is wanted in Sweden on allegations of sex crimes.
Assange's mother said she did not want her son "hunted down", while his lawyer in London suggested the alert issued by the global police body could be linked to the "bellicose" US reactions over the dumping of the documents.
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"This is a persecution and not a prosecution," his attorney Mark Stephens said, without revealing the whereabouts of the elusive 39-year-old Australian.
In Islamabad, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called in the US ambassador for talks as WikiLeaks' drip-feed of 250,000 US cables sent fresh shockwaves around the diplomatic community.
Suggestions by US diplomats that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into terrorist hands "are misplaced and doubtless fall in the realm of condescension," foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP in Islamabad.
The anger stems from a 2009 cable in which then US ambassador Anne Patterson spoke of concerns that someone working in government nuclear facilities "could gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon".
A 2008 cable reportedly warned: "Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a faster rate than any other country in the world."
The cables cited serious British concerns and also quoted the Russians as saying that there was "no way to guarantee" that the 120,000-130,000 people directly involved in Pakistan's nuclear programmes are all reliable.
They also said Pakistan's army chief had mused about forcing out President Asif Ali Zardari; laid bare US frustration at Islamabad's refusal to cut ties with extremists; and showed support among Pakistani cabinet ministers for US drone strikes.
Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fired back after cables released by WikiLeaks described US Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying that Russian democracy was in retreat.
Putin said Gates was "deeply misled" and warned Washington not to interfere in Russia's internal politics, according to the transcript of an interview with CNN.
In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was furious at suggestions by US diplomats that he had secret accounts in Swiss banks and was involved in fraud, suggesting the cable's authors could face prosecution.
"I do not have one penny in Swiss banks," Erdogan said.
Argentina, meanwhile, said US cables that questioned President Cristina Kirchner's mental health were "shameful."
In Washington, the White House stood by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying Assange's calls for her to resign in the wake of the WikiLeaks release were "ridiculous."
Assange told Time magazine that Clinton should quit if she is found to have ordered US diplomats to spy on UN officials in violation of international agreements.
Gates separately tried to play down the mass leak, telling reporters that the consequences for US foreign policy were "fairly modest."
But Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, called for Washington to treat WikiLeaks like a terrorist organisation by freezing the assets of people working for it.
The hunt for Assange sparked by Interpol's "red notice" request would likely focus on Sweden and Britain, where the former hacker spends much of his time.
Swedish prosecutors issued a warrant for Assange on November 18 citing "probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion." He has failed in one bid to get it thrown out but a second appeal is pending.
Assange is said to rarely sleep in the same place twice. Ecuador's left-leaning government initially offered Assange residency, but President Rafael Correa backtracked Tuesday.
Christine Assange told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she was feeling "as any mother would be, very distressed" that authorities were looking for her son.
"He's my son and I love him and obviously I don't want him hunted down and jailed," she said from her home in Queensland.
Danny Kemp @'SMH'
In order to form a more perfect union
On this day in 1862, Abraham Lincoln gave a State of the Union Address to a divided congress where he summarized, "We can succeed only by concert. It is not "Can any of us imagine better?" but "Can we all do better?" Object whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs, "Can we do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
Ultimately, this country found a way out of a bloody war and freed the slaves. We now find ourselves at war, and we are a country of citizens enslaved by debt. In the words of George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Ultimately, this country found a way out of a bloody war and freed the slaves. We now find ourselves at war, and we are a country of citizens enslaved by debt. In the words of George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Maids Being Tortured in Saudi Arabia
Though it’s no secret that life is often brutally difficult for maids working in Saudi Arabia, a new wave of atrocities has stirred outrage in the victims’ home countries and has trained a spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s failure to protect foreign workers.
Saudi Couple Hammers Nails Into Sri Lankan Housemaid
In August, a 49-year-old Sri Lankan woman, Lahadapurage Daneris Ariyawathie, returned to her home after working as a housemaid in Saudi Arabia. When she arrived, her children immediately realized she was in terrible pain and took her to a doctor. She told him the couple she worked for had hammered hot nails and pins into her hands, legs, and forehead when she told them she needed to rest. X-rays showed 24 nails embedded in her body.
After the case was publicized and Sri Lankan government officials demanded the Saudi government take action, CNN reported a Saudi couple had been arrested for the torture. The government also reportedly considered suspending the recruitment of Sri Lankan maids, though they denied there was any connection to this case. However, while the government seemed to be making concessions, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Workers’ Committee of the Saudi Chamber of Commerce told Arabic-language news organization Al Arabiya that Ariyawathie’s allegations were “absolutely baseless and illogical.” He did not -- presumably he could not -- explain why there very clearly were pins and nails in her body.
Doctors have removed most of the nails and metal fragments, and plan to operate to remove the rest of the nails at a future time.
Indonesian Maid Subjected To “Extraordinary Torture”
Indonesian authorities say twenty-three year old Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, an Indonesian woman working as a maid in Saudi Arabia, was tortured by her employers. They allegedly burned her with an iron, beat her severely, and cut her face and lips with scissors. (She will require extensive plastic surgery, and not just for cosmetic reasons -- in the pictures accompanying the linked articles, you can see that pieces of her face have actually been cut away.) On November 6th when she was admitted to a hospital in Medina, where she is currently recovering, a doctor who treated her said she was "wounded from head to toe." Another hospital worker told the Saudi Gazette that Sumiata's body bore the marks of numerous old wounds, and her bloodwork showed she may have suffered malnutrition or serious blood loss.
Indonesian authorities, including the president, have called for justice, but so far there has been no news of arrests.
Indonesian Maid Murdered
According to Indonesia’s minister of labor, via BBC News, when Kikim Komalasari’s body was found on November 11th her neck was slashed and she had severe cuts all over her body. The 36-year-old Indonesian woman worked as a maid in Saudi Arabia. Her employer allegedly murdered her and dumped her body on a roadside.
Indonesia’s president said the killing was “beyond inhumane” but that the Saudi government was taking action and he was “hopeful the perpetrators will be punished according to law.”...
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Laura Smith-Gary @'Care2'
Laura Smith-Gary @'Care2'
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
NB:
blakehounshell Note on Julian Assange and Interpol: There is no such thing as a "global arrest warrant"
Greenpeace Sues Chemical and PR Firms for "Unlawful" Spying
More than two years ago, Mother Jones exposed a private security firm run by former Secret Service agents that had spied on an array of environmental groups on behalf of corporate clients, in some cases infiltrating unsuspecting organizations with operatives posing as activists. Now, one of the targets of this corporate espionage is fighting back.
On Monday, Greenpeace filed suit in federal district court in Washington, DC, against the Dow Chemical Company and Sasol North America, charging that the two multinational chemical manufacturers sought to thwart its environmental campaigns against genetically engineered foods and chemical pollution through elaborate undercover operations. Also named in the suit are Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum, public relations firms hired by Sasol and Dow respectively, and four ex-employees of that now-defunct security firm, Beckett Brown International (BBI).
The suit charges that between 1998 and 2000 the chemical companies, the PR firms, and BBI "conspired to and did surveil, infiltrate and steal confidential information from Greenpeace with the intention of preempting, blunting or thwarting its environmental campaigns. These unlawful activities included trespassing on the property of Greenpeace, infiltrating its offices, meetings and electronic communications under false pretenses and/or by force, and by these means, stealing confidential documents, data and trade secrets from Greenpeace." Greenpeace is seeking an injunction against further trespass and thefts of trade secrets, as well as compensatory and punitive damages...
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James Ridgeway and Daniel Schulman @'Mother Jones'
Jeff Mills as The Wizard – Seven Rare WJLB Detroit Radio-Tapes 1986 – 1989
In the 1980s, Mills was an influential radio DJ on WJLB under the pseudonym “The Wizard.” Mills’ sets were a highlight of the nightly show from “The Electrifying Mojo”, Jennifer Owens. Complementing Mojo’s eclectic playlists, Mills would do advanced DJ tricks like beat juggling and scratching while mixing obscure Detroit Techno, Miami Bass, Chicago House and classic New Wave tracks both live and using a multi track when pre-recorded.
In going on to create his own music Jeff Mills is credited with laying the foundations for the highly influential Detroit Techno collective, Underground Resistance, alongside ‘Mad’ Mike Banks, a former Parliament bass player. Just like Public Enemy did some years before in hip hop, these men confronted the mainstream music industry with revolutionary rhetoric. Dressed in uniforms with skimasks and black combat suits, they were ‘men on a mission’, aiming at giving techno more content and meaning.
via nerdcore
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Cancún Opens for GREEN Business But REDD Will Destroy Indigenous Forest Cultures
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) COP16 opens this week in Cancún, Mexico to discuss green business (November 29 – December 10, 2010). No one is expecting any global climate treaty to be signed at this conference. However there is hope that some progress could be made.
Two articles in particular caught my attention over the weekend. The first article was published in Grist is by Jennifer Morgan, Climate Director at the World Resources Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC. The title of her article is “What can climate negotiations achieve in Cancun?” She writes “Establish a REDD+ mechanism” in a section titled “What decisions can be made in Cancun?” What was striking for me was the title of the following section, “What other issues remain contentious?” Clearly REDD+ is not a contentious issue for Morgan. The second article was by Kate Sheppard titled “Cancun or Bust” published in Mother Jones. Her penultimate paragraph reads, “Despite the very low expectations for a major agreement, there are major areas where the observers expect to see progress this year: ... the creation of programs to prevent deforestation (known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD). Progress in those areas would go a long way toward building trust and partnership between nations, observers say.”
I bet you’re wondering—what the heck is REDD?
Almost a year ago I went to Copenhagen for the last round of the UN Climate Conference COP15 with Sarah James, Gwich’in activist and current board chair of the Gwich’in Steering Committee in Fairbanks, Alaska. During the opening day of the conference Amy Goodman interviewed Sarah and I for a segment on Democracy Now. There, I participated in a contemporary art exhibition ‘(Re–) Cycles of Paradise’ organized by ARTPORT in partnership with Global Gender and Climate Alliance, where I presented a photo–video installation to highlight Sarah James’ work. That exhibition is currently being shown at the Centro Cultural de España in Mexico City through January 16 (will overlap with COP16 in Cancún).
While in Copenhagen, we stayed at a small hotel where each day we would gather at the lobby with other fellow indigenous activists including musician Robby Romero and his daughter, singer Dakota René of the Eagle Thunder Entertainment. Robby asked me have you heard about REDD? He told me a whole bunch of things about it but with all the commotion of the conference I came back with little understanding of what REDD actually is, except that the indigenous communities around the world regard it as the “largest land grab of all time.” While the conference resulted in failure, it gave birth to what has come to be known as the Climate Justice Movement.
So here is REDD from two different perspectives.
REDD According to the United Nations
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation
REDD is a program that was conceived by the United Nations and launched in September 2008 with expertise of UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
According to UN–REDD website: “Deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging, fires etc., account for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector.” The webpage continues, “(REDD) is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. REDD+ goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.”
UN website also states, “The Programme currently has 29 partner countries spanning Africa, Asia–Pacific and Latin America, of which 12 are receiving support to National Programme activities.”
Let me explain in simple terms what it means. You may have noticed in the UN description, the line, “to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests.” Whenever there is value there is money that can be exchanged. Say a company in Global North, take BP for example want to continue their carbon emissions, but they want to offset it to reduce their net carbon footprint, then they can buy carbon credit through REDD, in the process some forest in Global South say, Indonesia would be saved while BP continues business–as–usual.
What could be wrong with such a well meaning and benign scenario to save the planet from climate change disasters?
On November 25 UN–REDD Program released a Newsletter with success stories and plans for the Cancún conference that you can check out here.
REDD According to the Indigenous Forest Communities
Reaping profits from Evictions, land grabs, Deforestation and Destruction of biodiversity...
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Subhankar Banajee @'Truthout'
Hear Nick Cave Cover 28 Songs
In his 4-decade career, Nick Cave has covered literally dozens of famous songs either as a solo artist or with the Bad Seeds, the Boys Next Door, or the Birthday Party. A few well-known versions aside (“Stagger Lee,” “Mack the Knife,” “Mother Mother,” etc.), many of Cave’s covers hadn’t reached my ears… until digging through YouTube over the weekend that is. Lo and behold: they’re all quite good.
Hear a collection of 28 renditions found online of songs by the likes of Neil Young, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Roy Orbison, Nina Simone, Pulp, Nancy Sinatra, and more
wikileaks Hilarious cable on Prince Andrew mega corruption http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2008/10/08BISHKEK1095.html
wikileaks WikiLeaks reveals US Nuclear Weapons in the Netherlands http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/11/09BERLIN1433.html
Wikileaks cables reveal China 'ready to abandon North Korea'
South Korean war veterans protest after North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong Island. The WikiLeaks cables reveal Seoul believes such actions are those of a 'spoiled child'. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
China has signalled its readiness to accept Korean reunification and is privately distancing itself from the North Korean regime, according to leaked US embassy cables that reveal senior Beijing figures regard their official ally as a "spoiled child".
News of the Chinese shift comes at a crucial juncture after the North's artillery bombardment of a South Korean island last week that killed four people and led both sides to threaten war. China has refused to condemn the North Korean action. But today Beijing appeared to bow to US pressure to help bring about a diplomatic solution, calling for "emergency consultations" and inviting a senior North Korean official to Beijing.
China is sharply critical of US pressure tactics towards North Korea and wants a resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks. But the Guardian can reveal Beijing's frustration with Pyongyang has grown since its missile and nuclear tests last year, worries about the economic impact of regional instability, and fears that the death of the dictator, Kim Jong-il, could spark a succession struggle.
China's moves to distance itself from Kim are revealed in the latest tranche of leaked US embassy cables published by the Guardian and four international newspapers. Tonight, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the US "deeply regrets" the release of the material by WikiLeaks. They were an "attack on the international community", she said. "It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems," she told reporters at the state department.
The leaked North Korea dispatches detail how:
• South Korea's vice-foreign minister said he was told by two named senior Chinese officials that they believed Korea should be reunified under Seoul's control, and that this view was gaining ground with the leadership in Beijing.
• China's vice-foreign minister told US officials that Pyongyang was behaving like a "spoiled child" to get Washington's attention in April 2009 by carrying out missile tests.
• A Chinese ambassador warned that North Korean nuclear activity was "a threat to the whole world's security".
• Chinese officials assessed that it could cope with an influx of 300,000 North Koreans in the event of serious instability, according to a representative of an international agency, but might need to use the military to seal the border.
In highly sensitive discussions in February this year, the-then South Korean vice-foreign minister, Chun Yung-woo, told a US ambassador, Kathleen Stephens, that younger generation Chinese Communist party leaders no longer regarded North Korea as a useful or reliable ally and would not risk renewed armed conflict on the peninsula, according to a secret cable to Washington.
Chun, who has since been appointed national security adviser to South Korea's president, said North Korea had already collapsed economically.
Political collapse would ensue once Kim Jong-il died, despite the dictator's efforts to obtain Chinese help and to secure the succession for his son, Kim Jong-un.
"Citing private conversations during previous sessions of the six-party talks , Chun claimed [the two high-level officials] believed Korea should be unified under ROK [South Korea] control," Stephens reported.
"The two officials, Chun said, were ready to 'face the new reality' that the DPRK [North Korea] now had little value to China as a buffer state – a view that, since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, had reportedly gained traction among senior PRC [People's Republic of China] leaders. Chun argued that in the event of a North Korean collapse, China would clearly 'not welcome' any US military presence north of the DMZ [demilitarised zone]. Again citing his conversations with [the officials], Chun said the PRC would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the US in a 'benign alliance' – as long as Korea was not hostile towards China. Tremendous trade and labour-export opportunities for Chinese companies, Chun said, would also help 'salve' PRC concerns about … a reunified Korea.
"Chun dismissed the prospect of a possible PRC military intervention in the event of a DPRK collapse, noting that China's strategic economic interests now lie with the United States, Japan and South Korea – not North Korea."
Chun told Stephens China was unable to persuade Pyongyang to change its self-defeating policies – Beijing had "much less influence than most people believe" – and lacked the will to enforce its views.
A senior Chinese official, speaking off the record, also said China's influence with the North was frequently overestimated. But Chinese public opinion was increasingly critical of the North's behaviour, the official said, and that was reflected in changed government thinking.
Previously hidden tensions between Pyongyang and its only ally were also exposed by China's then vice-foreign minister in a meeting in April 2009 with a US embassy official after North Korea blasted a three-stage rocket over Japan into the Pacific. Pyongyang said its purpose was to send a satellite into orbit but the US, South Korea and Japan saw the launch as a test of long-range missile technology.
Discussing how to tackle the issue with the charge d'affaires at the Beijing embassy, He Yafei observed that "North Korea wanted to engage directly with the United States and was therefore acting like a 'spoiled child' in order to get the attention of the 'adult'. China encouraged the United States, 'after some time', to start to re-engage the DPRK," according to the diplomatic cable sent to Washington.
A second dispatch from September last year described He downplaying the Chinese premier's trip to Pyongyang, telling the US deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg: "We may not like them ... [but] they [the DPRK] are a neighbour."
He said the premier, Wen Jiabao, would push for denuclearisation and a return to the six-party talks. The official also complained that North Korea "often tried to play China off [against] the United States, refusing to convey information about US-DPRK bilateral conversations".
Further evidence of China's increasing dismay with Pyongyang comes in a cable in June 2009 from the US ambassador to Kazakhstan, Richard Hoagland. He reported that his Chinese counterpart, Cheng Guoping. was "genuinely concerned by North Korea's recent nuclear missile tests. 'We need to solve this problem. It is very troublesome,' he said, calling Korea's nuclear activity a 'threat to the whole world's security'."
Cheng said Beijing "hopes for peaceful reunification in the long term, but he expects the two countries to remain separate in the short term", Hoagland reported. China's objectives were "to ensure they [North Korean leaders] honour their commitments on non-proliferation, maintain stability, and 'don't drive [Kim Jong-il] mad'."
While some Chinese officials are reported to have dismissed suggestions that North Korea would implode after Kim's death, another cable offers evidence that Beijing has considered the risk of instability.
It quoted a representative from an international agency saying Chinese officials believed they could absorb 300,000 North Koreans without outside help. If they arrived "all at once" it might use the military to seal the border, create a holding area and meet humanitarian needs. It might also ask other countries for help.
The context of the discussions was not made explicit, although an influx of that scale would only be likely in the event of regime failure. The representative said he was not aware of any contingency planning to deal with large numbers of refugees.
A Seoul embassy cable from January 2009 said China's leader, Hu Jintao, deliberately ducked the issue when the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, raised it at a summit.
"We understand Lee asked Hu what China thought about the North Korean domestic political situation and whether Beijing had any contingency plans. This time, Hu apparently pretended not to hear Lee," it said. The cable does not indicate the source of the reports, although elsewhere it talks about contacts at the presidential "blue house" in South Korea.
Simon Tisdall @'The Guardian'
wikileaks Australia deploys Taskforce against WikiLeaks http://is.gd/hXB2g help us deploy counter force: http://is.gd/hXGAf
GB2010 (continued...)
yonmei Reported by eyewitnesses: the Met police in riot gear have invaded a #cuts meeting in #Lewisham, using horses & dogs. #ITN @quirkytrinkets
Lewisham protesters try to storm town hall
Matteo Mezzetta’s Hyperrealistic Paintings of DJs
Influenced by the film noir style of the 1930s and ’40s, Matteo Mezzetta puts a Hitchcock-inspired spin on DJ culture in his Noise series. Mezzetta, who is based in Milan, Italy, recreates photographs in his hyperrealistic style using only oil on canvas, so well in fact, that you have to look closely to spot the brushstrokes.
DJ #1. 2010, oil on canvas. Credit: Matteo Mezzetta.
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