Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

*** China moves up scientific ladder.  According to the latest research, in 2010 Chinese scientists had 121,500 academic papers on science and technology published in major international journals, which is 8.6% of the total.  The number of Chinese papers published in the 173 highest-rated publications was 5,203, making China the second highest source of such papers.  Between 2005 and 2010 the figure has increased at an annual average rate of 23.3%.  A less positive statistic for China is its average citations per paper of 6.21, well below the world average of 10.71.

*** Palestinian Islamic Jihad urges kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.  On 4 December, the Palestinian Maan News Agency quoted PIJ leader Khalid al-Batsh as saying that the only way to bring about the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails was by “kidnapping occupation soldiers and settlers”.

Referring to the recent exchange of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Al-Batsh told a gathering in northern Gaza: “The Hamas movement carried out the mission successfully and blissfully by releasing part of the prisoners from the occupation’s jails.  It is time that PIJ completes their release and liberates them from the darkness of the prisons.

*** India says 2,500 Kashmiri guerrillas in camps in Pakistan.  Indian Minister of State Jitendra Singh said on 30 November: “A number of training camps and launching pads are reportedly active in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir/Pakistan.  As per assessment, there are around 2,500 terrorists present in PoK/Pakistan.”

*** Georgia says waiting for Russia’s collapse.  Shaken by the electoral setback in Sunday’s elections experienced by Russia’s party-of-power, United Russia, the Kremlin will not have been pleased by the off-stage commentary from Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili.  In 2008, it will be recalled, Russia and Georgia fought a brief war during which Russia formally recognized the independence of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 

In a speech on 4 December given in a town near the border with Abkhazia, Saakashvili predicted that Russia “will definitely collapse” and that this collapse would enable Georgia to reunite with Abkhazia.  He said: “Of course Georgia without Abkhazia is unimaginable.  But for this...we need to wait for the moment when the empire [Russia] will definitely collapse and we will definitely get the opportunity and room for manoeuvre to restore our positions and maintain our current positions.”