Clinton urges "cool heads" in China-Japan island dispute

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday urged China and Japan to let "cool heads" prevail in a festering dispute over a cluster of islands in the East China Sea that has soured ties between Asia's two largest economies.

Clinton met Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of this week's U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York and said it was important to ratchet down tensions over the islands, known as the Diaoyu islands in China and the Senkakus in Japan, a senior State Department official said.

US to ease ban on imports from Myanmar

The US continues in its rapprochement with Myanmar, following another meeting between Thein Sein and Hillary Clinton.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the United States would take steps to ease its ban on imports from Myanmar, a major boon to the Southeast Asian nation as it emerges from years of political and economic isolation.

Japan vows no compromise on islands row

Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's prime minister, says the islands are an integral part of the country's territory.
( here is a video that came with the article )

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has insisted that there could be no compromise with China on the ownership of a disputed island chain and denounced attacks on Japanese interests.

"So far as the Senkaku islands are concerned, they are an integral part of our territory in the light of history and of international law," Noda told reporters at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, referring to an archipelago in the East China Sea that China knows as Diaoyu.

"It is very clear and there are no territorial issues as such. Therefore there cannot be any compromise that could mean any setback from this basic position. I have to make that very clear," he told reporters.

"The resolution of this issue should not be by force, but calmly, through reason and with respect for international law."

Philippines investigates priest's 'links to ivory trade'

A Catholic priest in the Philippines is to be investigated over possible links to the illegal trade in ivory, authorities say.

Monsignor Cristobal Garcia was quoted for an article on the ivory trade in National Geographic magazine as giving advice on how to smuggle ivory statues.

The article said ivory was widely used for religious artefacts in the country.

Archbishop of Cebu Jose Palma said in a statement that Mgr Garcia should be given a "fair and just hearing".

Japan-China ministers in 'severe' meeting over islands row

The Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers have held talks on a bitter row over disputed islands.

The meeting came on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The Japanese minister described the atmosphere as severe, Kyodo News agency said, while his Chinese opposite number restated Beijing's sovereignty over the islands, Xinhua news agency said.
The islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.
Tension in the region has been high since Japan's purchase of the islands from their private Japanese owner.
Both Chinese and Taiwanese fishing and surveillance vessels have sailed in and out of waters around the islands - which lie in the East China Sea - in recent days.

Ex-PM wins Japan opposition party vote

Japan's main opposition party has chosen former premier Shinzo Abe as its new leader, a victory likely to see him reinstated as prime minister in general elections expected this year.
The conservative, who was Japan's youngest ever prime minister during his year-long stint, comfortably beat his rival in a run-off on Wednesday for the job of president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
In a speech after his victory, Abe, 58, pledged to work with legislators and get the LDP back into government, three years after it lost power.
"Not only for ourselves, not only for the LDP but for the purpose of building a strong Japan, a prosperous Japan, and a Japan in which Japanese people will be able to feel happy about being Japanese," he said.
Abe defeated Shigeru Ishiba, a former defence minister, in the contest after none of the five candidates gained a majority in the first round of voting.
The once-ineluctable LDP fell from grace in 2009 after more than half-a-century of almost unbroken rule, displaced by party malcontents who split off to form the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

Disgraced Police Chief

Bo Xilai's former police chief sentenced to 15 years

A police chief who served under Bo Xilai (pictured), the former party chief of Chongqing, was sentenced to 15 years on Monday on charges including covering up the 2011 murder of a British businessman. Bo's wife was convicted of the murder in August.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120924-china-jails-bo-xilai-former-police-chief-weng-lijun-15-years-over-murder-scandal-gu-kailai-neil-heywood

North Korean Parliment meeting

North Korea parliament holds rare second session

North Korea cannot grow enough food to feed its people

Three bloggers sentenced in Vietnam

Blogger Nguyen Van Hai, alias Dieu Cay, was sentenced on Monday to 12 years in prison and policewoman turned dissident Ta Phong Tan was given 10 years, while Phan Thanh Hai, the only one of the trio to plead guilty, was handed a four-year term. after a trial lasting just a few hours.
The bloggers were charged with conducting propaganda against the one-party communist state under Article 88 of the criminal code, which rights groups say is one of many "vaguely defined articles" used to prosecute dissidents.
"Their crimes were especially serious with clear intention against the state," Court President Nguyen Phi Long said, adding that "they must be seriously punished".
All of the defendants will also have to serve between three and five years under house arrest after they complete their prison sentences.
"They abused the popularity of the Internet to post articles which undermined and blackened (Vietnam's) leaders, criticising the (Communist) party (and) destroying people's trust in the state," Long said.
Controlled court
Nguyen Van Hai, whose plight was als highlighted by US President Barack Obama, and Tan had "caused disorder" in the court and so were not allowed to make closing statements, he added.
In a speech that was curtailed when the audio feed from the courtroom was cut off, Nguyen Van Hai said he had never been against the communist state.
The charges relate to political articles the bloggers posted on the banned Vietnamese website "Free Journalists Club" as well as their postings on their own blogs, denouncing corruption and injustice and criticising Hanoi's foreign policy.
Dieu Cay, one of the founders of the Club of Free Journalists, is known for his writings calling for greater respect for human rights and democratic reforms. He is also known for his criticisms of China’s claims over disputed islands in the South China Sea.
Rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly called on the Vietnamese government to drop the charges and release the three bloggers immediately.
Vietnam bans private media and all newspapers and television channels are state-run.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Vietnam 172 out of 179 countries in its 2011-2012 press freedom index and identified the authoritarian state as an "Enemy of the Internet" because of systematic use of cyber-censorship.

China's first aircraft carrier enters service

China has taken delivery of its first aircraft carrier into service, according to the country's defence ministry.
The 300-metre-long Liaoning, named after the province where it was refitted, is a refurbished Soviet ship purchased from Ukraine.
Tuesday's unveiling is an attempt by China to be a leading Asian naval power, although the ship is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time.
The announcement had been long expected and was not directly linked to current tensions with Japan over a disputed group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
In a brief notice on its website, the ministry said the carrier's commissioning significantly boosted the navy's combat capabilities and its ability to cooperate in responding to natural disasters and other non-traditional threats.
"It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development," the statement said.
The vessel will "increase [China's] capacity to defend, develop its capacity to co-operate on the high seas in dealing with non-traditional security threats and will be effective in defending the interests of state sovereignty, security and development", it said.
Testing missions
China had partly justified the launching of a carrier by pointing out that it alone among the five permanent UN Security Council members had no such craft.
The Liaoning, formerly known as the Varyag, was constructed in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was never completed.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Varyag sat in Ukraine's dockyards.
A Chinese company with links to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) bought the ship just as Soviet warships were being cut for scrap.
So far the trial runs of the aircraft carrier have been to test the ship's propulsion, communications and navigation systems.
But launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea is a much trickier proposition.
China has not said what role it intends the carrier to fill other than helping safeguard China's coastline and sea links.
The Liaoning has also been portrayed as a kind of test platform for the future development of up to five domestically built Chinese carriers. (posted by Anthony D)

Japan tries to turn back Taiwanese vessels

Japanese coast guard vessels have tried to turn away dozens of Taiwanese fishing boats near a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea after firing water cannons at them.
The Taiwanese fleet, which included fishing boats and armed coast guard vessels, entered the disputed waters on Tuesday, according to the Japanese coast guard.
After Japan and China, Taiwan is the third country to lay claim on the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Report on Japan-China conflict

Japanese coast guard vessels fired water cannon to turn away about 40 Taiwanese fishing boats and the accompanying Taiwanese coast guard vessels early on Tuesday morning, a government official said.
Osamu Fujimura, the Japanese cabinet secretary, said that the coast guard used water cannon and other measures to get the Taiwanese boats to change course.
"We've just lodged a protest with the Taiwan side," he said.
"Our stance is that this is something that needs to be solved in the context of good bilateral ties between Japan and Taiwan. We would like to address the issue calmly."
Claim made 'loudly'
Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao, reporting from Japan’s Yonaguni islands, said that Taiwan, which until now has not involved itself in the conflict, made its claim “very loudly” on Tuesday.
“[Japan’s] concern is not so much the fishing vessels, but the fact that they are being accompanied by about 10 Taiwan coast guard vessels,” he said.
The boats were part of a fleet that left Taiwan on Monday pledging to stake their claim to islands where they say they have ancestral fishing rights.
All the Taiwanese vessels had since left the territorial waters, the Japanese coast guard said.

Our correspondent quoted Taiwanese officials as saying that their coast guard ships were "armed and ordered to defend their vessels in the face of what they called, 'Japanese aggression'".
Their arrival and large-scale breach of what Japan considers its territorial waters will further complicate an already tense confrontation pitting Tokyo against Beijing.
China's agriculture ministry, for its part, said that close to 200 Chinese boats had been fishing in seas around the disputed islands.
The brief Chinese statement did not specify whether the boats were all there at one time, nor did it say how close they were to the islands.
China, which regards self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province, may have included Taiwanese fishing vessels in its estimate.
Japan administers the uninhabited, but strategically well-positioned, archipelago under the name Senkaku.
China says it has owned the islands for centuries and calls them Diaoyu.
Taiwan, whose coast lies about 200km from the islands, claims the Diaoyutai belong to it.

China premier Wen Jiabao urges end to EU arms embargo

China's premier Wen Jiabao has urged the EU to lift its arms embargo on Beijing, at his last EU-China summit before handing over power this year.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Wen said "the solution has been elusive over the past 10 years. I deeply regret this".
The EU embargo was imposed after the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
EU sources, quoted ahead of the summit, said "we have agreed to disagree" with China on the issue.
Mr Wen also mentioned the EU's refusal to treat China as a fully-fledged market economy, which is preventing Brussels from lifting its tariffs on Chinese goods.
His one-day talks in Brussels with senior EU figures, including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, focused on a range of other economic issues.
China clinched a deal to work with the EU to cut greenhouse gases and move to a low-carbon economy, the European Commission said in a statement.

China-Japan protests resume amid islands row

Fresh anti-Japan protests have erupted in China over disputed islands amid raised tension on the anniversary of Japan's invasion of north-east China.

Thousands of protesters chanted slogans outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing as riot police lined the streets.
Japan's coast guard says several Chinese ships are in waters near the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, Japanese media report.
This follows a brief landing by two Japanese activists earlier on Tuesday.
The islands have long been a point of contention and recent tension has led to fears of a naval conflict.
The latest developments fall on a politically sensitive anniversary, marking what is known as the ''Mukden incident''.

China’s missing VP resurfaces in state media

 
Xi Jinping, the vice president of China, has made his first public communication in nearly two weeks, state media has said.
Thursday’s announcement comes amid swirling speculation about the whereabouts of China's leader-in-waiting.
Xi has not been seen in public for 13 days and has cancelled meetings with four foreign dignitaries including Hillary Clinton, giving rise to intense speculation about his health.
His unexplained disappearance has come at a highly sensitive time for China, which is gearing up for a generational handover of power that has already been marred by two major political scandals involving senior communist officials.
On Thursday, state media said he had "expressed condolences on the death of old party comrade Huang Rong", who died on September 6, a day after Xi missed a planned meeting with Clinton.
The report in the Guangxi Daily newspaper - mouthpiece of the Communist Party committee in China's southern Guangxi region - marked the first public communication by Xi since he delivered a speech on September 1.
The news was published widely in China, but made no mention of Xi's health, which has been the subject of widespread speculation in recent days. His reported ailments have ranged from a heart attack to a back ache.
Xi has been widely tipped to succeed President Hu Jintao as leader of the ruling Communist Party at a crucial meeting that is expected to be held some time next month, before taking over as head of state in March (posted by Anthony D)

Cambodia to free Khmer Rouge 'first lady'

Cambodia to free Khmer Rouge 'first lady' Survivors of the Cambodian genocide are shocked that one of the leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime will be set free after a court in Cambodia ruled that she was medically unfit to stand trial.
Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal issued a statement on Thursday saying that 80-year-old Ieng Thirith suffers from a progressive, degenerative illness, probably Alzheimer's disease, and that diminishes her mental capacity.
“There is no prospect that the accused can be tried in the foreseeable future,'' the tribunal said.
“Experts have confirmed that all treatment options have now been exhausted and that the accused's cognitive impairment is likely irreversible.''
She is “unfit to stand trial'', the statement said. Thursday's decision upheld an earlier ruling that was put on hold pending the opinion of medical experts.
A tribunal spokesman, Neth Pheaktra, said Ieng Thirith would be freed on Friday from the tribunal's detention facility if prosecutors did not appeal.
Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge's minister for social affairs and the regime's highest-ranking woman.
She also was the sister-in-law of late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
She is accused of involvement in the “planning, direction, co-ordination and ordering of widespread purges'', and was charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide, torture and religious persecution.
Ieng Thirith has said that the charges against her are ”100 per cent false'' and that she always worked for the benefit of the people.
The UN-backed tribunal is seeking justice for an estimated 1.7 million people who died of starvation, exhaustion, lack of medical care or execution during the communist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule.
'Mockery' of justice
Three other senior leaders are currently on trial, including Ieng Thirith's husband, 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the regime's former foreign minister. Also on trial is 85-year-old Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue.
The tribunal's statement stressed that Ieng Thirith's release did not mean the charges against her were being withdrawn and that it was not a finding of guilt or innocence.
It plans to consult annually with experts to see whether future medical advances could render her fit for trial.
Survivors of the Khmer Rouge era were stunned, including 71-year-old Bou Meng, whose wife and two children were executed at the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh.
“I am shocked,'' Bou Meng said. "I had always hoped that the Khmer Rouge leaders would be brought to court for justice, but now they are freeing her.''
He called it “a mockery to the deaths of so many Cambodian people'', and asked, "Where is the justice for my dead wife and children?'' (posted by Anthony D)

Occupy activists forced from Hong Kong plaza

Police have forced out the remaining Occupy protesters from an open-air plaza at banking giant HSBC's Asian headquarters in Hong Kong, more than ten months after the activists pitched their tents in the heart of the city's financial district.

The protesters scuffled with police on Tuesday, as they resisted a court order to leave the site by August 27. Some were carried away forcibly and taken outside a perimeter, where they were let go.

  

At around midday, officers entered the plaza and linked arms to form a human wall around the dozen or so protesters to move them out.

Authorities pulled down the tents and removed furniture, carpets and personal belongings, drawing angry cries from demonstrators beneath the iconic 47-storey building.

HSBC obtained permission from a court last month to take back the space, which the bank owned but that also serves as a public passageway. 

 

Echoing the global Occupy movement against corporate greed and economic inequality, the Hong Kong encampment attracted a commune of occupiers including students, young professionals, activists, the unemployed and homeless.

 

Dwindling numbers

The protest came at a time of growing resentment in the city of seven million at what many see as excessively close ties between government and big business, but it failed to gain traction.

Since they started on October 15 last year, the number of occupiers had dwindled from the 100 or so who had first pitched tents, paling in significance to the tens of thousands who have taken to Hong Kong's streets this year to protest against everything from perceived Chinese meddling in local affairs to high property prices.

Hong Kong university students started a brief boycott of classes on Tuesday, reiterating demands for the government to withdraw a course on patriotic Chinese education in schools, instead of just making it voluntary.

Hong Kong voted for a new legislature on Sunday, a day after Leung Chun-ying, the city's chief executive, backed down from a plan for compulsory patriotic Chinese education, a policy that drew tens of thousands of people to a 10-day protest.

The protesters' counterparts in New York were removed from Zuccotti Park in November, while those in London were evicted last June. (posted by Anthony D)

China sends six ships to disputed islands

Six Chinese ships have sailed into waters around a disputed archipelago, with Beijing saying they were there for "law enforcement" around islands Japan nationalised earlier this week.
The move, dubbed "unprecedented" by Tokyo, came on Friday as it was reported Japanese nationals had been physically attacked in China, marking the latest stage in a deteriorating row between Asia's two biggest economies.
Japanese living or visiting China were warned to take extra precautions after assaults and harassment were reported to the consulate in Shanghai, a base for Japanese businesses and a popular tourist destination.
Tokyo summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest what it insists is an incursion into territorial waters around islands it controls, called Senkaku, but claimed by Beijing as Diaoyu.
Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Hong Kong, said protesters in Beijing have called for a boycott of Japanese products to defend their country’s interests.
The latest tension surfaced after Yoshihiko Noda, the Japanese prime minister, announced that Japan is buying the disputed private islands and transferring control to the government.
Commentators say Noda's solution, nationalising the islands and continuing its policy of doing nothing with them, was an attempt to navigate between rising nationalism at home and China's growing assertiveness on the oceans.
"We'll do our utmost in vigilance and surveillance," said Noda when asked about Japan's response to the latest move by China. He also established a task force to deal with the issue.

Scores killed in China earthquakes

At least 89 people have been killed and 20,000 homes damaged by a series of earthquakes, one measuring 5.7 in magnitude, in southwestern China. The largest of the quakes struck the border between Yunnan and Guizhou provinces at about 11:00am local time (03:00 GMT) on Friday. The state-run Xinhua news agency said the earthquake hit the border area of Yiliang county of Yunnan and Weining county of Guizhou. By mid-afternoon, authorities had moved more than 100,000 from the area as a series of more than 60 aftershocks struck. Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, visited an affected area on Saturday and met some of the evacuees. The earthquakes hit Yunnan and Guizhou provinces [Al Jazeera] Zhang Junwei, a spokesperson from the Yunnan seismological bureau, said that the deaths all occurred in Yiliang, and that another 150 people were hurt. The main quake, which occurred at a depth of 14km, was followed by a series of aftershocks, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said. The earthquake was also felt in neighbouring Sichuan province. Xinhua said the provincial government had sent work teams to the quake-hit area and the civil affairs department was shipping thousands of tents, blankets and coats to the area. Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Hong Kong, said that the military had been deployed to conduct search and rescue operations in the area. The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the largest quake at 5.6 and said it struck at a depth of 10km.

Redefining Hong Kong

 

"I find Hong Kong has changed."

This is the first thing voter Peter Tsai said as he came out of the polling station: "It is no longer fair, and everything is so confusing."

Tsai explained that, unlike many others who had grown too disillusioned to bother, he felt compelled to cast his ballot for the Legislative Council elections because it was "the only thing" he could do to be "heard" above the din of shared - but dissonant - unhappiness.
There was a hint of sadness in his smile as he walked away: Hong Kong is a very different city now to what it used to be.
Sure, the streets have always buzzed with life, but now, walking down them can indeed feel akin to being inside a hornet’s nest. There is still buzzing all around you, but it is no longer simply the vibrant, cosmopolitan, frenetic energy of a thriving metropolis. This time, it’s more … uneasy.
There is an underlying nervous tension slowly weaving through the city, trapping residents in the strain of its vibration. It is like being caught between taut guitar strings that have been strummed ever so gently, but with a fear that it could snap.
People here used to feel the sky was the limit. Now, they just feel limited. As if their control over their own destiny is slipping through their fingers. As if someone else is now conducting the rhythm to which they are being asked to march.
It is been called "collective anxiety". And judging by the record number of demonstrations that have taken place here over the last two years - reaching into the thousands - that sounds about fair.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy leader steps down

The leader of Hong Kong's Democratic Party has stepped down after the party performed poorly in the country's legislative elections, despite a high turnout and strong support for full democracy.
Despite the poor showing, election results on Monday gave the pro-democracy camp the "critical minority" it needs to veto constitutional amendments before a crucial debate about universal suffrage in the coming four-year term of the legislature.
The results mean the Civic Party with five seats, up from four previously, overtakes the Democratic Party as the biggest pro-democracy party in the legislature, with almost all the votes counted.
Official results showed that the Democracy Party won only four seats, down from eight, in the new 70-seat assembly, prompting Albert Ho, chairman, to offer an emotional apology to the party faithful, according to AFP news agency.
"For the serious failure in this election I have to accept full political responsibility as the chairman of the Democratic Party," he said after bowing before the television cameras at a press conference.
He attributed the party's poor performance in Sunday's vote to a split in the democratic camp and the popularity of radical candidates, not to a fall in support for democracy.
"In the recent months the general public has become increasingly impatient and even very angry with the existing administration," Ho said, after weeks of protests over an unpopular education policy.
"I think a lot of voters have decided to choose some people who ... play a much more aggressive role in the Legislative Council."
Official results
In Sunday's election, 40 of the 70 seats on the Hong Kong Legislative Council were decided by voters, and those were split fairly evenly between the two sides, according to results released by election officials.
Pro-democratic candidates won 21 seats - 18 seats in the local districts and three more so-called "super seats" open to nearly all voters across the city.
Pro-Beijing rivals won 19 seats - 17 local seats and two super seats.
But another 30 seats on the council were chosen by members of business and special interest groups known as "functional constituencies," most of which are dominated by pro-Beijing figures.
Results showed that pro-democracy candidates won only six of those seats.

China trade data raises fear of economic slowdown

China's exports grew less than forecast and imports fell in August, adding to fears about a sharp slowdown in its economy.

Exports rose by 2.7% from a year earlier as global demand continued to remain subdued.
Imports fell 2.6% from a year ago, indicating a decline in homegrown consumption.
China has been trying to boost domestic demand in a bid to rebalance its growth and offset slowing demand for exports.
Analysts said that the fall in imports indicated that domestic consumption was not growing fast enough.
"The import surprise on the downside is very unusual. It is an alarming sign for the government and they probably saw it coming," said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong.
"We've now pretty much got the full batch of August data and it's clear that the slowdown pressure is growing."

Further slowdown?

Japan confirms disputed islands purchase plan

Japan has confirmed that it intends to purchase disputed islands also claimed by China from private owners, amid tension between the two countries.

The government had formally agreed to ''obtain ownership'' of islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, the top government spokesman said.
Japan controls the uninhabited but resource-rich East China Sea islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan.

China has denounced the plan as illegal and warned it will affect ties.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the Japanese government was buying the islands to promote their stable and peaceful management.
It was not immediately clear how much the purchase would cost. But previous Japanese media reports, citing government sources, said that the government was paying 2.05bn yen ($26m, £16.4m) for three islands.
"This is just the ownership of land, which is part of Japan's territory, moving from one [private] owner to the state, and should not cause any problem with other countries," said Mr Fujimura.