SQUIRREL-KILLERSUpdate Briefs #2, Part A

October 6, 2016

Dr. John F. Schunk, Editor

FIRST NEGATIVE BRIEFS01. NUCLEAR REACTORS02. SPACE LAB: Not a Threat

SECOND NEGATIVE BRIEFS03. JAPAN-CHINA WAR Disad04. ONE BELT ONE ROAD: Solvency05. PRISONER EXCHANGE: Solvency

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SK/UPDATE2-01. NUCLEAR REACTORS

1. CHINA IS ACCELERATING USE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY

SK/UP2-01.01) THE ECONOMIST, September 24, 2016, p. 43(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. China started its first nuclear plant in 1994. There are now 36 reactors in operation, and another 20 under construction (see map). A further four have been approved, and many more are in the planning stages. Only one new plant has been built in America, in contrast, since 1994; four more are under construction. By 2030 China is projected to get 9% of its power from nuclear, up from 2% in 2012. In absolute terms, its nuclear generation capacity will have increased eightfold over the same period, to 750 billion kilowatt-hours a year, roughly America's current level.

SK/UP2-01.02) Energy Information Administration, September 28, 2016, STATES NEWS SERVICE, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As of 2015, China had 34 operating nuclear reactors, with a total capacity of 27 gigawatts (GW). To meet its growing electricity demand and to address environmental concerns, China has implemented a long-term strategy for nuclear power development. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, between 2010 and 2014, China added 10 nuclear reactors, totaling 18 GW of additional capacity. The resulting increase in nuclear generation of 53 billion kilowatthours accounted for 79% of the increase in nuclear generation in all non-OECD countries over that period. China has an additional 20 reactors under construction, which, if completed, will add more than 22 GW to its existing capacity.

2. CHINA IS DEVELOPING NEW GENERATION OF REACTORS

SK/UP2-01.03) Richard Martin [Senior Editor for Energy], TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, September-October 2016, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Over the next two decades China hopes to build the world's largest nuclear power industry. Plans include as many as 30 new conventional nuclear plants (in addition to the 34 reactors operating today) as well as a variety of next-generation reactors, including thorium molten-salt reactors, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (which, like molten-salt reactors, are both highly efficient and inherently safe), and sodium-cooled fast reactors (which can consume spent fuel from conventional reactors to make electricity).

SK/UP2-01.04) Richard Martin [Senior Editor for Energy], TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, September-October 2016, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. What's more, the new plants should produce little waste and might even eat up existing nuclear waste. They could run on uranium, which powers 99 percent of the nuclear power plants in the world, or they could eventually run on thorium, which is cleaner and more abundant. The ultimate goal of the Shanghai Institute: to build a molten-salt reactor that could replace the 1970s-era technology in today's nuclear power plants and help wean China off the coal that fouls the air of Shanghai and Beijing, ushering in an era of cheap, abundant, zero-carbon energy.

SK/UP2-01.05) Richard Martin [Senior Editor for Energy], TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, September-October 2016, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The Shanghai Institute's effort to develop molten-salt reactors, a technology that has sat all but forgotten in the United States for decades, reflects just how daring China's nuclear ambitions are. Already, the government has invested some two billion Chinese renminbi ($300 million) over the last five years in molten-salt R&D. Building actual plants will require tens of billions more.

3. U.S. IS CLOSELY ENGAGED WITH CHINA ON NUCLEAR ENERGY

SK/UP2-01.06) Steven Mufson, THE WASHINGTON POST, May 11, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. It seemed like a typical day for President Obama. He taped a TV interview on trade, hosted the champion NASCAR team on the South Lawn and met with the defense secretary in the Oval Office. Not so typical was something that didn't appear that day on the president's public schedule: notification to Congress that he intends to renew a nuclear cooperation agreement with China. The deal would allow Beijing to buy more U.S.-designed reactors and pursue a facility or the technology to reprocess plutonium from spent fuel. China would also be able to buy reactor coolant technology that experts say could be adapted to make its submarines quieter and harder to detect.

SK/UP2-01.07) Steven Mufson, THE WASHINGTON POST, May 11, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. The White House's willingness to push ahead with the nuclear accord with Beijing illustrates the evolving relationship between the world's two largest powers, which, while eyeing each other with mutual suspicion and competitiveness, also view each other as vital economic and strategic global partners. The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group, argues that the new agreement will clear the way for U.S. companies to sell dozens of nuclear reactors to China, the biggest nuclear power market in the world.

SK/UP2-01.08) THE ECONOMIST, September 24, 2016, p. 43(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. China even harbours ambitions to export its growing expertise in nuclear power. After relying first on Russian designs, and more recently importing American and French ones, China has also developed indigenous nuclear reactors. A recently approved deal with Britain, valued at $23 billion, will see China help finance a French-designed nuclear-power station and possibly build one of its own design later.

4. CHINA IS FIRMLY COMMITTED TO NUCLEAR SAFETY

SK/UP2-01.09) THE ECONOMIST, September 24, 2016, p. 43(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In April officials revealed plans to draft a national nuclear-safety law. In May officials announced 600m yuan ($91m) in funding for six new nuclear-emergency squads, which would be ready for action by 2018. In August--on the same day that protesters marched in Lianyungang--China conducted its first "comprehensive nuclear-security emergency drill". This week the government said officials must consult locals before settling the location of new nuclear facilities. Deborah Seligsohn of the University of California, San Diego, says that because China's nuclear-power industry is centrally run and limited to a handful of companies, authorities are able to keep tight control over safety standards, and that they have not hesitated to slow projects down when seeing signs of strain.

SK/UP2-01.10) United Nations, STATES NEWS SERVICE, September 8, 2016, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Concluding a ten-day mission to China, a United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert team has found that the country's nuclear and radiation safety frameworks are effective, but will require further development due to rapid nuclear energy growth. "We found that significant progress has been made in developing the regulatory framework in the six years since the last review," the Executive Vice-President and Chief Regulatory Operations Officer at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Ramzi Jammal, who is also the team leader of IAEA's Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS), said in an IAEA news release today.

SK/UP2-01.11) United Nations, STATES NEWS SERVICE, September 8, 2016, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. According to the IAEA, China currently has 32 nuclear power reactors in operation, 22 more than in 2010. There are 24 nuclear power reactors under construction -- the highest number globally -- and the country aims to have about 90 reactors in operation or under construction by 2020. The country also has 19 research reactors, nearly 100 nuclear fuel recycling facilities and 120,000 radiation sources in service. Furthermore, in the news release, the Director of the IAEA's Division of Nuclear Installation Safety, Greg Rzentkowski, noted that China had demonstrated a strong commitment to invest and innovate in nuclear safety to meet infrastructure development challenges posed by its expanding nuclear power programme.

5. NEW REACTORS WON’T RESULT IN A MELTDOWN

SK/UP2-01.12) Richard Martin [Senior Editor for Energy], TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, September-October 2016, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Given unprecedented access to the inner workings of China's advanced nuclear R&D program, I was witnessing a new nuclear technology being born. Through the virtual reactor snaked an intricate system of pipes carrying the fluid that makes this system special: a molten salt that cools the reactor and carries heat to drive a turbine and make electricity. At least in theory, this type of reactor can't suffer the kind of catastrophic failure that happened at Chernobyl and Fukushima, making unnecessary the expensive and redundant safety systems that have driven up the cost of conventional reactors.

SK/UPDATE2-02. SPACE LAB: Not a Threat

1. CHINA’S SPACE LAB IS NOT A THREAT TO SAFETY

SK/UP2-02.01) Jessica Myers, LOS ANGELES TIMES, September 23, 2016, p. A3, LexisNexis Academic. The rumors started this summer: China had lost control of its first space lab, which would hurtle to Earth in a fiery ball of destruction. Chinese officials fed that speculation last week when they confirmed that the lab would return sometime next year, with "most parts" burning up during the fall. Several British newspapers flashed headlines about "out of control" equipment on a collision course with Earth. That's one scenario. However, falling space junk has yet to injure a person on land, and analysts doubt there's great risk of anyone getting crushed by a piece of the Chinese space lab.

SK/UP2-02.02) Jessica Myers, LOS ANGELES TIMES, September 23, 2016, p. A3, LexisNexis Academic. And the lab's impending demise doesn't mean that China's space program is in trouble. The country just launched a second, more sophisticated space research lab, a tribute to an expanding program with ambitions to reach Mars. The uproar does underscore the political aspects of exploration and China's guarded efforts as it pushes toward a permanent presence in space.

SK/UP2-02.03) Jessica Myers, LOS ANGELES TIMES, September 23, 2016, p. A3, LexisNexis Academic. "Everything in orbit by definition is in free fall," said Daniel Brown, an astronomy lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. "That doesn't mean they are out of control and we are doomed."

SK/UP2-02.04) Ben Rosen, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 21, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. How do you develop end-of-mission plans to avoid posing any threat to humans or other spacecraft? It's a question even the United States has failed to resolve in the past, ever since parts of Skylab, its first space station, famously crashed in a sparsely populated part of Australia.

2. LAB WILL INCINERATE UPON RE-ENTRY

SK/UP2-02.05) Ben Rosen, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 21, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. "Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling," Wu Ping, deputy director of China's manned space engineering office, said, according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency. Ms. Wu added that China is monitoring the space station for collisions with other objects.

3. CHANCE OF ANYONE BEING HIT IS INFINITESIMAL

SK/UP2-02.06) Jessica Myers, LOS ANGELES TIMES, September 23, 2016, p. A3, LexisNexis Academic. This wouldn't be the first time spacecraft has taken an unpredictable course out of the sky -- or triggered concern. Debris from the first U.S. space station, Skylab, rained over Australia in 1979 after people bought Skylab insurance and showed up at crash parties with hard hats. No one was injured.

SK/UP2-02.07) Ben Rosen, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 21, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Falling toward a planet where the ocean makes up 71 percent of the surface, the debris stands a 1-in-2,300 chance of striking anyone at all somewhere on Earth, according to NASA risk estimates. That means the chances of it hitting any specific person - like you - is reportedly about 1 in 21 trillion. By contrast, the chance of being struck by lightning is 1 in 280,000.

SK/UPDATE2-03. JAPAN-CHINA WAR Disad

A. JAPAN IS ON BRINK OF REMILITARIZATION

SK/UP2-03.01) Motoko Rich, THE NEW YORK TIMES, August 31, 2016, p. A4, LexisNexis Academic. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is requesting another increase in spending on Japan's armed forces, with a plan to expand missile defenses that would test the nation's commitment to pacifism and escalate a regional arms race with China and North Korea. With rising threats from North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program and repeated incursions by Chinese ships into waters surrounding a string of islands claimed by Japan, the request would let the ministry develop new antiballistic missiles and place troops on southern islands closer to the chain in dispute with China.

SK/UP2-03.02) Motoko Rich, THE NEW YORK TIMES, August 31, 2016, p. A4, LexisNexis Academic. If approved, the budget proposal for 5.17 trillion yen, or $50.2 billion, formally submitted on Wednesday, would be the nation's fifth-straight annual increase in military spending. It is a 2.3 percent rise over last year. The request includes proposals to develop and potentially purchase new antiballistic missiles that can be launched from ships or land, and to upgrade and extend the range of the country's current land-based missile defense systems, a significant expansion of Japan's missile defense capabilities.

SK/UP2-03.03) Stephen Porter, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 22, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. "In the eyes of many, North Korea's military campaigns and kidnappings have epitomized the vulnerability and illegitimacy of Japan's post-war institutions, including its pacifist constitution and immobile security forces," Maslow and Mason [authors of RISK STATE: JAPAN’S FOREIGN POLICY IN AN AGE OF UNCERTAINTY] wrote.

SK/UP2-03.04) Stephen Porter, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 22, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Many say that reforming the constitution is Abe's lifelong political mission, as the Monitor's Gavin Blair wrote. In July, Abe's Liberal Democratic Party gained a two-thirds "super majority" in the legislature's upper house, opening the door to revise the constitution, including Article 9, which states, "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."

SK/UP2-03.05) Robert Bebber [U.S. Cyber Command], inFOCUS, Summer 2015, p. 3, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Japan faces a unique challenge with her constitutional prohibition against offensive platforms. However, it appears as though that is beginning to change with the tense territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands.

B. U.S.-CHINA ENGAGEMENT WILL PUSH JAPAN OVER THE BRINK

1. ALLIANCE WITH U.S. IS SECURITY FOUNDATION FOR JAPAN

SK/UP2-03.06) Michael Auslin [Director of Japan Studies, American Enterprise Institute], FOREIGN AFFAIRS, March-April 2016, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Above all, Abe has taken several moves to strengthen Japan's most important strategic relationship: its alliance with the United States. In April 2015, Tokyo and Washington upgraded their ties for the first time since 1997, announcing that they would start cooperating more closely on maritime security and regional stability. The two nations also agreed to work together to deal with ambiguous security situations that fall short of formal conflict and to jointly respond to threats in space and cyberthreats.

SK/UP2-03.07) Jane Perlez, THE NEW YORK TIMES, December 5, 2015, p. A1, LexisNexis Academic. But the administration suffered a humiliating diplomatic defeat last spring when most of its closest allies signed up for the bank [Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank], including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea. Altogether 57 countries have joined, leaving the United States and Japan on the outside.

2. OPPOSITION TO CHINA IS KEY TO U.S.-JAPAN ALLIANCE

SK/UP2-03.08) Michael Auslin [Director of Japan Studies, American Enterprise Institute], FOREIGN AFFAIRS, March-April 2016, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. By slowly eliminating its restraints on security cooperation, by deepening its relationship with the United States, and by emphasizing more muscular, liberal rhetoric, Abe's Japan has positioned itself as a sort of anti-China in Asia and beyond.

SK/UP2-03.09) Michael Holtz, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, January 18, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Like many Southeast Asian cities, Jakarta has long suffered from a lack of infrastructure development. But that's quickly started to change over the past year as Asia's two wealthiest countries and most powerful competitors, China and Japan, have pledged to help build new railways, roads, and the city's first subway. The fight over infrastructure projects in the Indonesian capital is just one front in a larger battle between the two Asian giants for economic and political dominance in Southeast Asia and beyond. Lam Peng Er, a professor at the National University of Singapore who studies Sino-Japanese relations, has dubbed their escalating rivalry "a great game," the 21st-century extension of long-simmering tensions.

SK/UP2-03.10) Max Lewontin, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, August 6, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. On Saturday, Japan officially protested after six Chinese coast guard vessels (at least three were armed with gun batteries, Japan said) approached disputed East China Sea islands along with a fleet of hundreds of Chinese fishing boats. Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it filed the protest after the Japanese coast guard spotted the vessels Saturday along with a fleet of 230 Chinese fishing boats swarming around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. China also claims the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu, the Associated Press reports.

C. BREAKDOWN IN U.S.-JAPAN ALLIANCE RISKS CONFLICT AND WAR

1. WAR OVER THE SENKAKU ISLANDS IS A REAL DANGER

SK/UP2-03.11) THE ECONOMIST, November 7, 2015, p. 34(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Japan's territorial dispute with China, over the tiny uninhabited Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, has a different context--that of Japan's security treaty with America. As China sees it, this has allowed Japan to risk China's wrath, as when, in 2012, it nationalised three of the islands that had been privately owned. Since then bilateral relations have been dire.

SK/UP2-03.12) Michael Holtz, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, January 18, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Ties between Japan and China have long been strained by historical and territorial disputes. Their face-off in Southeast Asia comes amid rising tensions over a group of islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China.

SK/UP2-03.13) Weston Williams, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 26, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Chinese aircraft conducting a major military exercise in the East China Sea got a little too close to Japanese territory Sunday, exacerbating tensions between the two powers in the region. Japanese fighter jets flew to intercept dozens of Chinese aircraft as they flew over a strategically important strait between Okinawa and the Miyako islands near Taiwan. While the planes did not technically violate Japanese territory, it is reportedly the first time that Chinese military aircraft have been seen in the area.

SK/UP2-03.14) Weston Williams, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, September 26, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. Japan and China have had a long, contentious history stemming back long before World War II. The current manifestation of tensions between the two powers, however, comes from China's establishment of the "East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone" (ADIZ) in November 2013. The Chinese protection zone encompasses the Shenkaku islands, which are under the control of Japan. China claims the islands, or Diaoyu, as it refers to them, as its own. Japan strongly disagrees with China's claim of ownership. "We cannot accept the implication that the airspace over the Senkaku islands, which are part of our territory, belongs to China," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo on Monday, according to Bloomberg. The islands are currently uninhabited, but the surrounding waters give Japan important resources, such as oil and fish, and are strategically important in a military sense.

2. U.S. WILL BE DRAGGED INTO WAR

SK/UP2-03.15) Kai He [Associate Professor of International Relations, Griffith U., Australia], POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, Winter 2015, p. 701, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Along with China’s rise in military and economic capabilities, foreign policy crises involving China seem more likely, as seen in the diplomatic standoffs in the South China Sea and over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. With the United States "rebalancing toward Asia," diplomatic and military crises between China and its neighbors will inevitably involve U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific.

SK/UP2-03.16) Kevin Rudd [former Prime Minister of Australia], HARVARD INTERNATIONAL REVIEW, Spring 2014, p. 79, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Let's consider the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute between Japan and China. There are many ways to respond to that. First is to do nothing and allow the conflict to drift. The problem with that is the conflict may escalate. The second approach is to apply external military diplomatic and political pressure either against Japan or against China to force a resolution short of military conflict. The problem with that is it is likely to create a harder reaction from either side than the reverse.

SK/UPDATE2-04. ONE BELT ONE ROAD: Solvency

1. ONE BELT ONE ROAD IS AN AMORPHOUS CONCEPT

SK/UP2-04.01) THE ECONOMIST, July 2, 2016, p. 37(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. OBOR [One Belt One Road] puzzles many Western policymakers because it is amorphous--it has no official list of member countries, though the rough count is 60--and because most of the projects that sport the label would probably have been built anyway.

2. CHINA HAS NO NEED FOR U.S. ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE

SK/UP2-04.02) THE ECONOMIST, July 2, 2016, p. 37(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. First, the projects are vast. Official figures say there are 900 deals under way, worth $890 billion, such as a gas pipeline from the Bay of Bengal through Myanmar to south-west China and a rail link between Beijing and Duisburg, a transport hub in Germany. China says it will invest a cumulative $4 trillion in OBOR [One Belt One Road] countries, though it does not say by when. Its officials tetchily reject comparison with the Marshall Plan which, they say, was a means of rewarding America's friends and excluding its enemies after the second world war. OBOR, they boast, is open to all. But, for what it is worth, the Marshall Plan amounted to $130 billion in current dollars.

SK/UP2-04.03) THE ECONOMIST, July 2, 2016, p. 37(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In 2015 the central bank transferred $82 billion to three state-owned "policy banks" for OBOR [One Belt One Road] projects. China's sovereign wealth fund backed a new Silk Road Fund worth $40 billion and the government set up the AIIB with $100 billion of initial capital. The bank is not formally part of OBOR but the loans approved at its first general meeting--roads in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, for example--are all in Silk Road countries.

SK/UP2-04.04) THE ECONOMIST, July 2, 2016, p. 37(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Yet while OBOR [One Belt One Road] gathers momentum it is also encountering problems. These are especially glaring in South-East Asia. China is planning a 3,000km (1,900-mile) high-speed rail line from Kunming, in its south-west, to Singapore. But in June talks with Thailand over its section of the line broke down; the Thais said they would build only part of the project, and would finance it themselves. There have been many other such failures. Also worrying are signs that there are not yet enough viable projects for the vast sums being earmarked.

3. ONE BELT ONE ROAD DOES NOT SERVE U.S. INTERESTS

SK/UP2-04.05) David E. Sanger & Edward Wong, THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 13, 2015, p. A6, LexisNexis Academic. China is at the same time setting up other trade pacts around the region so it can use its cash and enormous market leverage to strike deals more advantageous to its interests. Mr. Xi was in Kazakhstan this month plugging his “One Belt, One Road” initiative of construction from Europe to Central Asia to the seas around China. It is a subtle form of competition, but one that many in the Obama administration see as the most important geopolitical power struggle in the world today.

SK/UP2-04.06) THE ECONOMIST, July 2, 2016, p. 37(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Third, OBOR [One Belt One Road] matters because it is a challenge to the United States and its traditional way of thinking about world trade. In that view, there are two main trading blocs, the trans-Atlantic one and the trans-Pacific one, with Europe in the first, Asia in the second and America the focal point of each. Two proposed regional trade deals, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, embody this approach. But OBOR treats Asia and Europe as a single space, and China, not the United States, is its focal point.

SK/UP2-04.07) THE ECONOMIST, July 2, 2016, p. 37(US), GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Lastly, Xi Jinping needs it. He has made OBOR [One Belt One Road] such a central part of his foreign policy and has gone to such lengths to swing the bureaucracy behind the project that it is too late to step back now. None of this means the new Silk Road will be efficient, nor does it mean China's plans will always be welcome in countries suspicious of its expanding reach. But the building blocks are in place. The first projects are up and running. OBOR is already beginning to challenge the notion of Europe and Asia existing side by side as different trading blocs.

SK/UPDATE2-05. PRISONER EXCHANGE: Solvency

1. CHINA DOES NOT WANT PRISONERS IN U.S. JAILS

SK/UP2-05.01) Ted Poe [U.S. Congressman], STATES NEWS SERVICE, October 25, 2011, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The Bureau of Prisons says that 27 percent of all the prisoners in Federal prisons are foreign nationals that are illegally in the United States. That's astonishing, that over 25 percent of our Federal prisons house illegals, all at the expense of Americans. These criminals serve their sentence in out of our state or Federal prisons. Then after they serve that sentence and they are ordered deported, here's what happens: many of their native countries refuse to take back their deported criminals. Why would they take them back? They've got enough criminals of their own. Since they won't take back all of their own citizens that are convicted criminals after they serve their sentence, that nation tries to pawn off the remainder on the United States.

SK/UP2-05.02) Ted Poe [U.S. Congressman], STATES NEWS SERVICE, October 25, 2011, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Well, according to an ICE report earlier this year, we're talking about 138,000 illegal aliens who are pending deportation - either in jail or out on the streets. Some of these are never taken back to their home countries. Now, who are these offending nations? Well, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, and yes, China. Our good buddies the Chinese are the second worst offenders, with 35,000 convicted criminals pending deportation. Imagine that - Chinese criminals in the United States.

SK/UP2-05.03) Ted Poe [U.S. Congressman], STATES NEWS SERVICE, October 25, 2011, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. It's time we offer a proper incentive for these uncooperative nations - like China - who freely take money from us - like our debt - and turn around and disrespect our laws. There needs to be a punishment for any nation that refuses to take back lawfully deported criminal aliens.

2. FEW AMERICANS ARE IN CHINESE JAILS

SK/UP2-05.04 Edward Wong, THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 8, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. A United Nations committee has said that China has violated international human rights law by detaining without proper cause an American citizen, Phan Phan-Gillis, and has called for her immediate release. That position was highlighted this week by a human rights advocacy group based in San Francisco, to put more pressure on the Chinese government during a visit to Beijing by the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.

SK/UP2-05.05) Edward Wong, THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 8, 2016, pNA, LexisNexis Academic. The Dui Hua Foundation, a group based in San Francisco that seeks to secure the release of political prisoners in China, said on Tuesday that this was the first time in the 25-year history of the working group that it had judged that an American citizen had been deprived of rights and arbitrarily detained by the Chinese government. Ms. Phan-Gillis, a Vietnamese-American business consultant from Houston, was secretly detained in March 2015 by officers from the Ministry of State Security, which oversees espionage and counterespionage. She had been traveling in southern China with a group of businesspeople and officials from Houston.

3. U.S. LACKS LEVERAGE TO ACHIEVE RELEASE

SK/UP2-05.06) Jeff Stein, NEWSWEEK, August 19, 2016, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. State Department officials say there is little they can say or do to influence the outcome of Swidan's case since it is in the hands of Chinese officials and proceeding under Chinese law. About 90 Americans are being held in Chinese jails, the department says.