C4 Sunday, June 1, 2014
SUNDAY BUSINESS
Roswell Daily Record
Hagel: China territorial claims destabilize region SINGAPORE (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned an international security conference Saturday that the U.S. “will not look the other way” when nations such as China try to restrict navigation or ignore international rules and standards. China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea are destabilizing the region, and its failure to resolve disputes with other nations threatens East Asia’s long-term progress, Hagel said. For the second year in a row, Hagel used the podium at the Shangri-La conference to call out China for cyberspying against the U.S. While this has been a persistent complaint by the U.S., his remark came less than two weeks after the U.S. charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets. The Chinese, in response, suspended participation in a U.S.China Cyber Working Group, and released a report that said the U.S. is conducting unscrupulous cyber espionage and that China is a major target. Noting the suspension, Hagel in his speech said the U.S. will continue to raise cyber issues with the Chinese, “because dialogue is essential for reducing the risk of miscalculation and escalation in cyberspace.” In a string of remarks aimed directly at China, Hagel said the U.S. opposes any nation’s use of intimidation or threat of force to assert territorial claims. “All nations of the region, including China, have a choice:
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U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, meets with Vietnam's Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh, right, before the start of their meeting, Saturday in Singapore. Hagel traveled to Singapore to attend the 13th Asia Security Summit. to unite, and recommit to a stable regional order, or, to walk away from that commitment and risk the peace and security that has benefited millions of people throughout the Asia-Pacific, and billions of people around the world,” he said. China and Japan have been at odds over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by both. The U.S. has declined to take sides on the sovereignty issue but has made clear it has a treaty obligation to support Japan. And the U.S. has also refused to recognize China’s declaration of an air defense zone
over a large swath of the East China Sea, including the disputed islands. His remarks drew an immediate challenge from Maj. Gen. Yao Yunzhu of China’s People’s Liberation Army, who questioned if the U.S. and its allies followed international law and consulted with others whey they set up air defense zones. Yao, director of the Center for China-America Defense Relations at the PLA’s Academy of Military Science, also challenged how the U.S. can say it is not taking a position on the island sovereignty issue, while still saying it is committed to its treaty obligation to support Japan.
Hagel said the U.S. and allies consulted with its neighbors and, unlike China, did not unilaterally set up air defense zones. U.S. officials also have raised concerns about Beijing’s decision to plant an oil rig in part of the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam. The move has led to a series of clashes between the two nations in the waters around the rig, including the recent sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat. Chinese leaders, however, has been equally strong in defending their territorial actions, and have blamed the Obama administration’s new focus on Asia for emboldening some of the disputes. But some Asian leaders have expressed worries that the U.S. is doing little more than paying lip service to the complaints, fueling doubts about America’s commitment to the region. In an ef fort to tamp down those concerns, Hagel also used his speech to reassure AsiaPacific nations that despite persistent budget woes and increasing demands for military aid across Africa and Europe, the U.S. remains strongly committed to Asia. Allies in the Asia Pacific have questioned how serious the U.S. is about its so-called pivot to Asia, particularly as the recent unrest in Ukraine and terror threats in north Africa have garnered more attention. And President Barack Obama’s national security speech earlier this week made no mention of the Asia Pacific. “The rebalance is not a goal,
Sorghum seeing success in Southern foods MICHELE KAYAL ASSOCIATED PRESS
When chef Josh Feathers was growing up in T ennessee, his grandmother always had a jar of sorghum syrup in the cupboard. But he never gave much thought to it, or its significance to Southern culture. That didn’t happen until he’d grown up, moved away, then returned home to work at Blackberry Farm in Walland, T ennessee. “My mentor, while we were creating desserts he said, ‘This is one of the main ingredients you need to look at,”’ recalls Feathers, now corporate chef at Blackberry Farm. “This is a truly Southern heritage ingredient we want to highlight.” T oday, much of the country — even the South itself — is experiencing a similar delayed appreciation for sorghum. Sorghum syrup — or “sorghum molasses” as it’s sometimes called — has long been a staple of certain Souther n cupboards. Pressed from the tough, grassy stalks of the sweet sorghum plant, then boiled down, it was seen as the province of grandmothers, a stodgy, household ingredient no one paid much mind. No more. Sorghum syrup and even sorghum grain are being thrust into the limelight by a new generation of chefs in the South and beyond who appreciate its complexities and its provenance. “Sorghum wasn’t considered a noble ingredient 10 years ago,” says Edward Lee, chef of two Louisville, Kentucky, restaurants and author of the cookbook “Smoke and Pickles.” “The first thing I get is this very rustic nuttiness, this umami nuttiness, then the grassiness. And then the sweetness unfolds around that. It’s a unique flavor. And it adds a lot of depth to what you’re cooking, more so than honey.” Lee is not alone. He
not a promise or a vision - it is a reality,” Hagel said, laying out a long list of moves the U.S. has made to increase troops, ships and military assets in the region, provide missile defense systems to Japan, sell sophisticated drones and other aircraft to Korea, and expand defense cooperation with Australia, New Zealand and India. Still, the question was raised to Hagel after the speech, noting that the U.S. is busy backing NATO allies in Europe. Hagel said the U.S. has the ability to meet its obligations all around the world, but is also working to build the capabilities of those partners so they can better take responsibility for their own security. He said the U.S. plans to increase foreign military financing by 35 percent and military education and training by 40 percent by 2016. Urging nations to work together to resolve their disputes, Hagel said the U.S. is also continuing to reach out to China. Despite persistent differences, Washington and Beijing have been trying to improve their military relations, expand communications between their forces and conduct joint exercises. “Continued progress throughout the Asia-Pacific is achievable, but hardly inevitable,” Hagel told the crowded room at the Shangri-La Dialogue. “The security and prosperity we have enjoyed for decades cannot be assured unless all nations, all our nations have the wisdom, vision, and will to work together to address these challenges.”
US regulators close small lender in Maryland
WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators have closed a small lender in Maryland, marking the ninth U.S. bank failure of 2014 after 24 closures last year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken over Slavie Federal Savings Bank, in Bel Air, Maryland. The lender, which operated two branches, had roughly $140.1 million in assets and $111.1 million in deposits as of March 31. Bay Bank FSB, based in Lutherville, Maryland, has agreed to pay the FDIC a premium of 0.20 percent to assume Slavie Federal’s deposits. It also agreed to buy about $129.9 million of the failed bank’s assets. Slavie Federal’s failure is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $6.6 million.
This April 21 photo shows a sorghum syrup in Concord, N.H.
uses sorghum as a glaze for foie gras and highlights its distinct flavor in sorghum-and-grits ice cream. Feathers calls it “an all-purpose item” that can be drizzled over biscuits, shines up breakfast sausage and enlivens vinaigrettes. Vivian Howard, chef and coowner of The Chef and the Far mer in Kinston, North Carolina, has deployed sorghum in candied yams. Washington, D.C., chef and restaurateur Jef f Tunks uses sorghum on his “low-andslow” roast duck. And in Philadelphia, chef Jeremy McMillan of Talula’s Garden combines it with black garlic to glaze carrots. Demand for sorghum syrup has doubled during the last five years, says James Baier, executive secretary of the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association, rising so fast that some of his 300 members have begun running out before the new season starts. Demand is being driven by the public’s search for alternative sweeteners, Baier says, and also by the light shined on sorghum by chefs,
restaurants, even cocktail mixologists. Distillers have begun producing a rum-like product from sorghum, Baier says, and others using it to make whiskey, beer and cocktail bitters. Soy sauce producers have also shown interest, he says. Sorghum grain also is ambling to center stage on many chefs’ plates. Harvested from a short, stout version of the sorghum plant, the tiny grain has been used as food in Africa for thousands of years, but has been known in the United States mainly as biofuel or animal feed. T oday, the grain is being milled into flour and marketed to the gluten-free and wholegrain markets, and is being used by chefs in soups, stews and salads. Only 2 percent of production currently goes to food, says Tim Lust, chief executive of ficer of the United Sorghum Checkoff Program, which markets the grain, but that figure is growing by 25 percent a year. Cookbook author Martha Rose Shulman has compared sorghum grain to Israeli couscous, and recommends it as a
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base for a black-bean stew as well as for a salad with cucumber, avocado and cherry tomato. At the Clifton Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia, chef Tucker Yoder combines the grain and the syrup in a quinoa and sorghum pudding. New York chef Marc Forgione has offered sorghum as a side to items such as arctic char. “The closest possible thing you can compare it to is a real heirloom farro,” says Forgione, who is working with Lust’s group to cook a three-course sorghum lunch at a June trade show. “It tastes like the ancient grain that it is. It’s got a great bite to it. It’s very earthy. When we do it risotto style — I cook mine al dente anyway — it has a nice chew to it, a full texture.” So is sorghum the next quinoa? Forgione has one word: Sriracha. “If someone had told us 10 years ago that this condiment you can’t even pronounce was going to be the number one selling condiment, you wouldn’t have believed it,” he says. “You never know.”
Motorola to close Texas phone factory FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit announced Friday it will shutter its North Texas factory by the end of this year, barely a year after it opened with much fanfare as the first smartphone assembly plant in the U.S. At the time, Google had explained its surprising decision by saying the location would enable it to fulfill customized, built-to-order devices and deliver them anywhere in the U.S. within five days. But sales of its flagship phone, the Moto X, have been too weak and the costs of running the plant too high to keep operations going, Motorola Mobility spokesman Will Moss said. Singaporebased international contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics Ltd. operates the plant. Even though the concept of the smartphone was pioneered in the U.S. and many phones have been designed here, the vast majority of phones are assembled in Asia. The Fort Worth factory has allowed Google to stamp the phone with “Made in the U.S.A.,” although assembly is just the last step in the manufacturing process and accounts for relatively little of the cost of a smartphone. The cost largely
lies in the chips, battery and display, most of which come from Asia. The Fort Worth factory employs about 700 workers who assemble the Moto X smartphones for the U.S. market, Moss said. He declined to comment on whether Motorola would retain the workers. Motorola Mobility will continue to develop the Moto X in Brazil and China, where the costs for labor and shipping aren’t as high. Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office administers a pair of special state funds meant to help attract jobcreating businesses to the state, but spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said the Republican governor did not distribute any money to close the Motorola Mobility deal. Google bought cellphone pioneer Motorola for $12.4 billion in 2012. The Moto X originally sold for $600, but amid flagging sales, Google dropped the retail price to $399. Still, Google sold only a fraction of the units in the first quarter of 2014 when compared with the Apple iPhone. The average selling price globally for a smartphone in 2013 was $335, according to Massachusetts-based researcher International Data Corp.