After condemning the inaction and totalitarianism of Maoist China, the United States is worried for Hu Jintao’s China’s spectacular political and economic development. For neoconservatives such as Robert Kagan in the (Washington Post) there is no place in the dominated-by-the-Americans world for the emergence of a new great power. Sooner or later, the confrontation will be unavoidable. Therefore, Beijing’s ambitions should be preventively contained. On the contrary, for Europeans such as Jérôme Monod, president Chirac’s closest adviser, China’s spectacular development is good news for it is part of the rebalance of the world based on a multipolar principle. Thus, after his return from Boao, he described his partner full of peaceful intentions in the International Herald Tribune though he clarified that if they are treated like enemies they would be force to behave as such.

In Uzbekistan, 23 traders will be tried for their allegedly membership of an Islamite terrorist organization. Actually, they were just members of Akram Yuldashev’s guild. Yuldashev is an intellectual who favors the economic modernization and was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment for being Islamite and has been arrested since 1999. Without waiting for the verdict, which was evident, the population of Fergana’s valley attacked the prison on May 12, 2005, to free Akram Yuldashev and his friends allowing more than 2 000 prisoners to escape. Then, the crowd attacked the very same headquarters of the regional administration. President Islam Karimov, who especially arrived to the place, personally directed the repression which caused, at least, 500 dead in Andijan.
German historian Reinhard Krumm, who lives today in Uzbekistan, guarantees in Tagesspiegel the opposition is peaceful whereas the dictatorship is violent. Samih Vaner, from the National Foundation of Political Sciences of France, says in (Le Figaro) that those accusations of Islamism have no solid grounds. In Uzbekistan, the majority of the people are Muslim and, when tortured, they all say they are terrorists. Besides, the demand with regard to the caliphate is imaginary, points out in (Gazeta) Shirin Hunter, from the CSIS. There is no candidate for such a job.
On his side, British ambassador Craig Murray, whose accusations against Karimov’s crimes cost him his career, reminds in the (Guardian) that such a despotic regime is supported by the CIA and the MI-6 who are hired for tortures. The diplomat was removed from his post due to his indignation regarding this situation and persisted and succeeded in performing an autopsy to the burned body of an Uzbek opponent in Scotland.
Russian political scientist Oleg Panfilov predicts in (Izvestia) that the power wouldn’t succeed in preventing the rebellion provoked by the economic failure and the terrible repression. Finally, Alexei Makarkin compares the Uzbekistan of Karimov with the Romania of Ceausescu. In the (Gazeta), he assures the dictator would do his best to remain in power and he can do it without any bloodshed. In addition, he doesn’t fear the reaction of the international community for it is always in agreement with the United States who thanks him for letting it establish its military bases in the territory. This confirms the embarrassing explanations of the White House’s spokesman when he condemned violence and blamed the demonstrators for it.