The Washington Post has a report on the Chinese
government's detention of Ching Cheong, a renowned
journalist from Hong Kong working for Singapore.
Ching was working on a story in involving secret
interviews with a former Communist party chief who
opposed the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacres, and who
died recently after 16 years of house arrest.
After receiving a call from someone on the mainland
claiming to have access to the interviews, Ching
traveled to Beijing to get them. When he arrived, he
was swiftly detained. Though China often takes its own
journalists into custody, this is the first instance in
which a foreign reporter has been arrested.
Security agents apprehended Ching Cheong, chief China
correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper,
on April 22 in the southern city of Guangzhou, where he
was scheduled to meet a source who had promised to give
him a copy of the politically sensitive manuscript,
according to the journalist's wife, Mary Lau.
Lau said Chinese authorities warned her and the Straits
Times not to disclose her husband's detention, and she
stayed silent for weeks in the hope he would be
released. She said she decided to go public last week
after a mainland official told her privately that the
government was preparing to charge him with "stealing
core state secrets."
If charged, Ching would be the second journalist for a
foreign newspaper arrested by the government of
President Hu Jintao in the past year. Zhao Yan, a
researcher in the Beijing bureau of the New York Times,
was arrested by the State Security Ministry in September
on similar charges and has been held incommunicado
without trial since.
The arrests could have a chilling effect on foreign news
operations in China. The Chinese government often jails
Chinese journalists and writers -- the advocacy group
Reporters Without Borders says there are more
journalists in prison in China than anywhere else in the
world -- but in the past it has generally refrained from
arresting individuals employed by foreign news agencies.
The Straits Times, which has not reported the detention
of its correspondent, said in a written statement Sunday
that it had been told by the Chinese Embassy in
Singapore that Ching "is assisting security authorities
in Beijing with an investigation into a matter not
related to the Straits Times."
Monday, May 30, 2005
Junichiro Koizumi visits tomb for unkown soldiers
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose visits
to a Shinto shrine for war dead have sparked a bitter
row with China, joined in a tribute at Japan's tomb of
the unknown soldiers on Monday.
As heavy rain fell, Koizumi stood in silence with
Japanese politicians and foreign diplomats as the ashes
of 300 soldiers were added to those symbolising some
350,000 Japanese soldiers who died in World War II.
Chidorigafuchi, an austere, non-denominational memorial
near the Imperial Palace, honor's Japan's unidentified
war dead whose remains are symbolically placed in a
gold-plated urn inside a wooden coffin housed in a
hexagonal pavilion.
It stands in sharp contrast to the nearby Yasukuni
Shinto shrine, once a symbol of wartime nationalism and
now a site where war criminals convicted by a 1948
Allied tribunal are honored with Japan's 2.5 million war
dead.
Koizumi has visited Yasukuni each year since taking
office in 2001 and last went there in January 2004.
Some Japanese have suggested prime ministers could honor
war dead without angering China and other Asian
neighbors that suffered under Japan's wartime occupation
by paying their respects at Chidorigafuchi rather than
at Yasukuni.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sat with
Princess Takamado during a memorial service at
Chidorigafuchi National Tomb for Dead Soldiers in Tokyo
"On the occasion of this ceremony, I think deeply of the
war dead who became the foundation for peace and
prosperity of our country of today, and express my
condolences," Health Minister Hidehisa Otsuji said in an
address at Monday's ceremony.
"In the meantime, I pledge to make efforts to pass on to
the next generation many lessons learned from the war in
order to ensure eternal peace."
Koizumi, a member of the royal family and foreign
diplomats each placed a chrysanthemum on a table set
before the memorial's coffin to music from a band of
Imperial Palace guards.
The latest remains came mainly from Southeast Asia and
Pacific islands including Iwo Jima, where U.S. forces
defeated the Japanese in 1945 in a fierce battle that
helped turn the tide of World War II.
Ceremonies are performed at Chidorigafuchi each May and
the prime minister sometimes attends with other cabinet
ministers -- without prompting complaints from other
Asian countries.
Yasukuni has long been the focus of controversy, in part
because Shinto priests in 1978 added 14 "Class A" war
criminals -- leaders including wartime prime minister
Hideki Tojo -- to the lists of those worshipped as
deities at the shrine.
No remains are interred at the shrine.
Sixty years after Japan's defeat in World War II,
ordinary Japanese as well as politicians remain divided
about official visits to Yasukuni as well as how to view
the nation's past.
"The ... prime minister should be able to pay his
respects to the war dead (at Yasukuni)," said Toshiko
Yasuda, a 54-year-old housewife whose uncle is believed
to have died on Iwo Jima.
"The prime minister has apologized for the past
mistakes. That is necessary. Japan has done bad things
in the past, but what we have to do is think about what
to do in the future," added Yasuda, who attended
Monday's ceremony.
An official of a veterans group, said he was strongly
opposed to Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni.
"I want the government to build a national cemetery. I
want a facility where people of various religions and
beliefs can pay their respects freely," said the
68-year-old man, who declined to give his name.
Nearly three out of every five Japanese who responded to
a poll published by Kyodo news agency on Saturday said
they believed Koizumi should not visit Yasukuni this
year.
Koizumi has repeatedly said he goes there to pay his
respects to the dead and to vow that Japan would never
again wage war. He has not yet said when he will visit
the shrine again.
end of quotes (agencies)
to a Shinto shrine for war dead have sparked a bitter
row with China, joined in a tribute at Japan's tomb of
the unknown soldiers on Monday.
As heavy rain fell, Koizumi stood in silence with
Japanese politicians and foreign diplomats as the ashes
of 300 soldiers were added to those symbolising some
350,000 Japanese soldiers who died in World War II.
Chidorigafuchi, an austere, non-denominational memorial
near the Imperial Palace, honor's Japan's unidentified
war dead whose remains are symbolically placed in a
gold-plated urn inside a wooden coffin housed in a
hexagonal pavilion.
It stands in sharp contrast to the nearby Yasukuni
Shinto shrine, once a symbol of wartime nationalism and
now a site where war criminals convicted by a 1948
Allied tribunal are honored with Japan's 2.5 million war
dead.
Koizumi has visited Yasukuni each year since taking
office in 2001 and last went there in January 2004.
Some Japanese have suggested prime ministers could honor
war dead without angering China and other Asian
neighbors that suffered under Japan's wartime occupation
by paying their respects at Chidorigafuchi rather than
at Yasukuni.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sat with
Princess Takamado during a memorial service at
Chidorigafuchi National Tomb for Dead Soldiers in Tokyo
"On the occasion of this ceremony, I think deeply of the
war dead who became the foundation for peace and
prosperity of our country of today, and express my
condolences," Health Minister Hidehisa Otsuji said in an
address at Monday's ceremony.
"In the meantime, I pledge to make efforts to pass on to
the next generation many lessons learned from the war in
order to ensure eternal peace."
Koizumi, a member of the royal family and foreign
diplomats each placed a chrysanthemum on a table set
before the memorial's coffin to music from a band of
Imperial Palace guards.
The latest remains came mainly from Southeast Asia and
Pacific islands including Iwo Jima, where U.S. forces
defeated the Japanese in 1945 in a fierce battle that
helped turn the tide of World War II.
Ceremonies are performed at Chidorigafuchi each May and
the prime minister sometimes attends with other cabinet
ministers -- without prompting complaints from other
Asian countries.
Yasukuni has long been the focus of controversy, in part
because Shinto priests in 1978 added 14 "Class A" war
criminals -- leaders including wartime prime minister
Hideki Tojo -- to the lists of those worshipped as
deities at the shrine.
No remains are interred at the shrine.
Sixty years after Japan's defeat in World War II,
ordinary Japanese as well as politicians remain divided
about official visits to Yasukuni as well as how to view
the nation's past.
"The ... prime minister should be able to pay his
respects to the war dead (at Yasukuni)," said Toshiko
Yasuda, a 54-year-old housewife whose uncle is believed
to have died on Iwo Jima.
"The prime minister has apologized for the past
mistakes. That is necessary. Japan has done bad things
in the past, but what we have to do is think about what
to do in the future," added Yasuda, who attended
Monday's ceremony.
An official of a veterans group, said he was strongly
opposed to Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni.
"I want the government to build a national cemetery. I
want a facility where people of various religions and
beliefs can pay their respects freely," said the
68-year-old man, who declined to give his name.
Nearly three out of every five Japanese who responded to
a poll published by Kyodo news agency on Saturday said
they believed Koizumi should not visit Yasukuni this
year.
Koizumi has repeatedly said he goes there to pay his
respects to the dead and to vow that Japan would never
again wage war. He has not yet said when he will visit
the shrine again.
end of quotes (agencies)
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Koizumi to visit WW II war dead cemetery on May 30th
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to attend a ceremony
for Japanese World War II victims at the cemetery of
Chidorigafuchi in the Nippon Budokan of Tokyo on Monday
May 30th. This time, not (yet) at Yasukuni Shrine... In
the same time, rivalry on the gas rich territories in
the East China sea continues.
Quote:
"Japan's trade minister accused China of hypocrisy
yesterday for starting construction of a gas project in
disputed waters of the East China Sea, the latest in a
series of remarks threatening to worsen a diplomatic
feud.
China, whose ties with Japan are at their worst in
decades, said on Thursday it was committed to talks
scheduled for May 30-31 on resolving the row but
criticized Japan for starting the process of awarding
exploration rights in the disputed area.
Japan, in turn, expressed outrage over evidence that
Beijing was going ahead with the construction of
facilities in the same area ahead of the talks. "It's
outrageous," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted by a ministry official as
telling a news conference.
"While shaking hands with the right hand, they are
dealing a blow with the left. It's unacceptable,"
Nakagawa said, adding it was only natural that this
would affect next week's talks in Beijing, Nakagawa said
that government inspections of the area had shown that
rather than halting its project, China was going ahead
with building facilities.
"Work is proceeding. That is a big problem from the
viewpoint of Japan-China friendship," Nakagawa-who last
month called China a "scary country" ? said.
Sino-Japan relations, already chilly, worsened sharply
this week when Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi abruptly
cancelled a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi over his refusal to stop visits to Tokyo's
Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are
honored along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.
Ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) senior official
Shinzo Abe told reporters after meeting Koizumi that he
thought China would continue to raise the issue of how
Japan handles its wartime past whenever Beijing thought
it would benefit.
"I told him my views ... that they (China) would
continue to use this as a diplomatic card as long as
they can and they would not let go of it," said Abe,
often cited as a possible successor to Koizumi and known
for his outspoken criticism of China.
Koizumi is set to visit the Chidorigafuchi tomb for the
unknown soldier on Monday to take part in a ceremony in
which more war dead will be honored, a spokesman for
the prime minister's office said late Friday.
Visits to secular Chidorigafuchi have not sparked Asian
outrage before, because the site it lacks associations
with convicted war criminals or Japan's pre-war Shinto
religion, in which the emperor was viewed as a god.
Koizumi usually visits Chidorigafuchi, on August 15, the
anniversary of the war's end.
China and Japan, the world's second and third biggest
oil consumers, are also at odds over the disputed area
of the East China Sea, with Tokyo demanding China halt
energy exploration and provide data on its gas
development projects there. Trade between the two Asian
giants have been growing, valued at nearly $170 bn in
2004.
But diplomatic ties deteriorated sharply in April, when
thousands demonstrated across China to protest the
Japan's approval of school textbooks that critics say
gloss over its wartime atrocities and to oppose its bid
for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
On Thursday, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori, Koizumi's predecessor, accused China and South
Korea of "niggling" in their attacks on the textbooks.
China on Friday lashed out at the comments of a junior
Japanese cabinet minister on Thursday that war criminals
honored at the Yasukuni Shrine-who include wartime
prime minister Hideki Tojo-were no longer regarded as
criminals in Japan, Kyodo news agency reported.
Japanese officials have repeatedly said this is not the
stance of the Japanese government. The remarks were
absurd and a "blatant provocation to international
justice and human conscience", China's Foreign Ministry
said on Friday in a statement on its Web site,
www.fmprc.gov.cn.
"The Chinese government and people express their intense
indignation and severe condemnation," spokesman Kong
Quan said in the statement. The comments were not
isolated or accidental, he said.
"This cannot but make people ask, does Japan play a
responsible role in the international community?" he sai
Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan?s trade and industry minister,
accused China of hypocrisy on Friday for starting
construction of a gas project in disputed waters of the
East China Sea, the latest in a series of remarks
threatening to worsen a diplomatic feud.
China, whose ties with Japan are at their worst in
decades, said on Thursday it was committed to talks
scheduled for May 30-31 on resolving the row but
criticized Japan for starting the process of awarding
exploration rights in the disputed area.
Japan, in turn, expressed outrage over evidence that
Beijing was going ahead with the construction of
facilities in the same area ahead of the talks. ?It?s
outrageous,? Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted by a ministry official as
telling a news conference.
?While shaking hands with the right hand, they are
dealing a blow with the left. It?s unacceptable,?
Nakagawa said, adding it was only natural that this
would affect next week?s talks in Beijing."
end of quotes
for Japanese World War II victims at the cemetery of
Chidorigafuchi in the Nippon Budokan of Tokyo on Monday
May 30th. This time, not (yet) at Yasukuni Shrine... In
the same time, rivalry on the gas rich territories in
the East China sea continues.
Quote:
"Japan's trade minister accused China of hypocrisy
yesterday for starting construction of a gas project in
disputed waters of the East China Sea, the latest in a
series of remarks threatening to worsen a diplomatic
feud.
China, whose ties with Japan are at their worst in
decades, said on Thursday it was committed to talks
scheduled for May 30-31 on resolving the row but
criticized Japan for starting the process of awarding
exploration rights in the disputed area.
Japan, in turn, expressed outrage over evidence that
Beijing was going ahead with the construction of
facilities in the same area ahead of the talks. "It's
outrageous," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted by a ministry official as
telling a news conference.
"While shaking hands with the right hand, they are
dealing a blow with the left. It's unacceptable,"
Nakagawa said, adding it was only natural that this
would affect next week's talks in Beijing, Nakagawa said
that government inspections of the area had shown that
rather than halting its project, China was going ahead
with building facilities.
"Work is proceeding. That is a big problem from the
viewpoint of Japan-China friendship," Nakagawa-who last
month called China a "scary country" ? said.
Sino-Japan relations, already chilly, worsened sharply
this week when Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi abruptly
cancelled a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi over his refusal to stop visits to Tokyo's
Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are
honored along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.
Ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) senior official
Shinzo Abe told reporters after meeting Koizumi that he
thought China would continue to raise the issue of how
Japan handles its wartime past whenever Beijing thought
it would benefit.
"I told him my views ... that they (China) would
continue to use this as a diplomatic card as long as
they can and they would not let go of it," said Abe,
often cited as a possible successor to Koizumi and known
for his outspoken criticism of China.
Koizumi is set to visit the Chidorigafuchi tomb for the
unknown soldier on Monday to take part in a ceremony in
which more war dead will be honored, a spokesman for
the prime minister's office said late Friday.
Visits to secular Chidorigafuchi have not sparked Asian
outrage before, because the site it lacks associations
with convicted war criminals or Japan's pre-war Shinto
religion, in which the emperor was viewed as a god.
Koizumi usually visits Chidorigafuchi, on August 15, the
anniversary of the war's end.
China and Japan, the world's second and third biggest
oil consumers, are also at odds over the disputed area
of the East China Sea, with Tokyo demanding China halt
energy exploration and provide data on its gas
development projects there. Trade between the two Asian
giants have been growing, valued at nearly $170 bn in
2004.
But diplomatic ties deteriorated sharply in April, when
thousands demonstrated across China to protest the
Japan's approval of school textbooks that critics say
gloss over its wartime atrocities and to oppose its bid
for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
On Thursday, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori, Koizumi's predecessor, accused China and South
Korea of "niggling" in their attacks on the textbooks.
China on Friday lashed out at the comments of a junior
Japanese cabinet minister on Thursday that war criminals
honored at the Yasukuni Shrine-who include wartime
prime minister Hideki Tojo-were no longer regarded as
criminals in Japan, Kyodo news agency reported.
Japanese officials have repeatedly said this is not the
stance of the Japanese government. The remarks were
absurd and a "blatant provocation to international
justice and human conscience", China's Foreign Ministry
said on Friday in a statement on its Web site,
www.fmprc.gov.cn.
"The Chinese government and people express their intense
indignation and severe condemnation," spokesman Kong
Quan said in the statement. The comments were not
isolated or accidental, he said.
"This cannot but make people ask, does Japan play a
responsible role in the international community?" he sai
Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan?s trade and industry minister,
accused China of hypocrisy on Friday for starting
construction of a gas project in disputed waters of the
East China Sea, the latest in a series of remarks
threatening to worsen a diplomatic feud.
China, whose ties with Japan are at their worst in
decades, said on Thursday it was committed to talks
scheduled for May 30-31 on resolving the row but
criticized Japan for starting the process of awarding
exploration rights in the disputed area.
Japan, in turn, expressed outrage over evidence that
Beijing was going ahead with the construction of
facilities in the same area ahead of the talks. ?It?s
outrageous,? Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted by a ministry official as
telling a news conference.
?While shaking hands with the right hand, they are
dealing a blow with the left. It?s unacceptable,?
Nakagawa said, adding it was only natural that this
would affect next week?s talks in Beijing."
end of quotes
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Gas dispute in East China Sea
Japan confirmed its plan to ask China about details of
China's natural gas projects in the East China Sea next
week, while in Beijing China said it does not want to
see the latest flare-up between the two countries cast a
shadow over the bilateral meeting. The two countries
have arranged a working-level meeting to help resolve
the row over the Chinese gas development projects.
The gas dispute, which will be discussed in a two-day
meeting in Beijing beginning Monday, centers on the
Chunxiao field, which has estimated reserves of over
1,600bn cubic feet of gas. The field lies well within
China's self-declared economic exclusion zone (EEZ), but
straddles the two countries? territories as defined by
Tokyo.
China drilling installation is only 4km from the
median line that Japan claims is the internationally
accepted standard for determining sea rights, prompting
complaints that China is in danger of sucking gas from
Japan's side of the reserve.
China's natural gas projects in the East China Sea next
week, while in Beijing China said it does not want to
see the latest flare-up between the two countries cast a
shadow over the bilateral meeting. The two countries
have arranged a working-level meeting to help resolve
the row over the Chinese gas development projects.
The gas dispute, which will be discussed in a two-day
meeting in Beijing beginning Monday, centers on the
Chunxiao field, which has estimated reserves of over
1,600bn cubic feet of gas. The field lies well within
China's self-declared economic exclusion zone (EEZ), but
straddles the two countries? territories as defined by
Tokyo.
China drilling installation is only 4km from the
median line that Japan claims is the internationally
accepted standard for determining sea rights, prompting
complaints that China is in danger of sucking gas from
Japan's side of the reserve.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Japan "sloppy" diplomacy towards armed neighbors.
Japan, Russia still tread cautiously 100 years after
decisive sea battle while both navies acquire new
equipments. Japan with 54 destroyers is beyond its mission
of self defense. Enough to worry its ex foe.
Quote:
Russia's Navy is set to acquire 10 to 20 new battleships
by 2015 that will set it back 5 to 10 billion rubles per
frigate, Biznes, a business daily, reported.
The keels of a new frigate and a new large amphibious
landing ship will be laid July 31 on Navy Day, said
Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, commander-in-chief of the
Russian Navy.
The new Mk 22350 multi-role and long-range frigate will
conduct anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations, hitting
other naval targets. It will take three or four years
to complete one frigate, if this project gets regular
appropriations.
"Most likely, this project will feature engineering
solutions that were used to build Mk 11356 frigates for
the Indian Navy," Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director
of the Center for Analyzing Strategies and Technologies,
said.
"This is, in fact, a large destroyer that is called a
'frigate' for political reasons," Mikhail Barabanov,
scientific editor of Arms Exports magazine, said.
Experts have some misgivings about the July 31 deadline
because a contract is usually awarded after a tender,
but as of yet, no tender has been laid out.
According to the navy's Kuroyedov, the keel of a new
large amphibious-landing ship will be finished before
the year is out. That ship will displace 8,000 to 9,000
tons.
"The Russian Navy still has two amphibious landing ships
that are unfit for action," Barabanov said. "It will
take at least five billion rubles to build this ship."
If the tender is completed and the contract signed,
these will be the first new ships for the navy since the
year the Soviet Union collapsed, a navy source said.
"Not a single warship has been designed and built for
the Russian Navy since 1991," he said, adding that the
state has now started setting aside money.
The Russian military ship building industry's recovery
has positively influenced armed exports.
"Naval hardware sales will account for 50% of Russian
arms-export volumes, or more than $2.5 billion this
year," Rosoboronexport head Sergei Chemezov said."
Yet, celebrations of the battle of the Tsushima went on,
smoothly:
Quote:
"One hundred years after Japan crushed Russia at sea and
cemented its role as a global military power, the two
countries are moving cautiously but without much hope to
resolve one of Japan's most protracted disputes.
Japanese military veterans voice open frustration that
little progress has been made to settle the row over
four islands seized by the Soviet Union in 1945 that has
prevented the two neighbors from formally ending World
War II.
But it was a much earlier anniversary that brought some
500 people, from veterans to officials and military
officers from the two countries, to a mass tea ceremony
in the naval port of Yokosuka at the mouth of Tokyo Bay.
The ceremony, a refined Japanese tradition to mark
momentous occasions, took place in front of the restored
Mikasa, the flagship vessel a century ago at the Battle
of Tsushima, known in Japan as the Sea of Japan Naval
Battle.
In the battle, which broke out on May 27, 1905 in the
Tsushima Straits off the Korean Peninsula, Japan nearly
wiped out the Russian fleet in just two days, virtually
ending two years of war in one of the most total naval
victories in history.
The victory shocked Russia, which doubted it had a match
in the Asian nation that just 37 years earlier had
broken out of centuries of self-isolation.
Historians credit the victory with proving Japan's
independence in Western eyes -- but also planting the
seeds of its will to conquer Asia and ultimately suffer
defeat three decades later.
"We have come to a turning point this year," Kenjiro
Moji, counsellor of the Defense Agency, told the
ceremony Tuesday in front of a bronze statue of the
Mikasa's commander, Admiral Heihachiro Togo.
"We are commemorating not only the 100th anniversary of
Japan-Russia War but also the 150th anniversary of the
beginning of relations between Japan and Russia and the
60th anniversary of the end of World War II," said Moji.
"This year, we are to take a fresh step toward the next
half century," he said. "There is room for big progress
in our ties. Through this kind of ceremony, we hope the
Japan-Russia relations will further develop."
One sign of progress came in early May when Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi accepted President Vladimir
Putin's invitation and took part in ceremonies in Moscow
marking the end of World War II in Europe.
"It is necessary for the two countries to develop
relations at a time when we recall various historical
events this year," said Mikhail Galuzin, counsellor and
deputy head of the Russian embassy in Tokyo.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due in Tokyo
next week to discuss arrangements for a delayed visit to
Tokyo by Putin, Galuzin said on the deck of the Mikasa,
which is now open to visitors:
"I think his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister
(Nobutaka) Machimura will be a very important one."
For Japan, ties with Russia are all the more important
now as Tokyo is desperately seeking a permanent seat on
the United Nations Security Council -- an ambition
opposed by China, which accuses Japan of not atoning for
its World War II atrocities.
But Japanese veterans doubt Japan and Russia can strike
a deal on this year of anniversaries. Japan has
demanded the return of all four Kuril islands just off
the coast of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.
"Japan's diplomacy is really sloppy now," said Sadao
Kawakatsu, 82, a former sub-lieutenant of Japan's
wartime navy.
"We are frustrated with the slow pace of talks," said
Kawakatsu, wearing a white navy cap.
"Grassroots cooperation is going well like the Japanese
saying, 'Yesterday's enemy is today's friend'," he said.
"But at the political level, disappointment has
prevailed."
Masayuki Takemiya, another 82-year-old former
sub-lieutenant, said: "The two governments should end
this abnormal situation -- Japan and Russia are still in
a state of war."
Takemiya added: "The two countries must move forward
step by step. But I doubt that Japan can settle the
issue and get the islands back from Russia in a short
period."
Russia has suggested handing back two of the four
islands, which Moscow recognized as Japanese after the
1905 defeat. Soviet troops in 1945 evicted the
residents of the Kurils, known in Japan as the Northern
Territories, and replaced them with Russian settlers.
Foreign minister Machimura told a Japanese newspaper
last week: "If the two countries are to reach an
agreement, that would mean both would have to compromise
on something. Nothing will be born if we only act on
the basis of principles."
Koizumi, however, has refused anything but the return of
all four islands.
But Sen Genshitsu, the grand tea master who led the
intricate ceremony, has not given up hope.
"We must have these kinds of events more often so that
we can understand each other at the level of people"
"The important thing is heart-to-heart dialogue. If my
tea ceremony can help develop Japan-Russia relations,
I'm happy to lead the ceremony again and again."
End of quotes
decisive sea battle while both navies acquire new
equipments. Japan with 54 destroyers is beyond its mission
of self defense. Enough to worry its ex foe.
Quote:
Russia's Navy is set to acquire 10 to 20 new battleships
by 2015 that will set it back 5 to 10 billion rubles per
frigate, Biznes, a business daily, reported.
The keels of a new frigate and a new large amphibious
landing ship will be laid July 31 on Navy Day, said
Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, commander-in-chief of the
Russian Navy.
The new Mk 22350 multi-role and long-range frigate will
conduct anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations, hitting
other naval targets. It will take three or four years
to complete one frigate, if this project gets regular
appropriations.
"Most likely, this project will feature engineering
solutions that were used to build Mk 11356 frigates for
the Indian Navy," Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director
of the Center for Analyzing Strategies and Technologies,
said.
"This is, in fact, a large destroyer that is called a
'frigate' for political reasons," Mikhail Barabanov,
scientific editor of Arms Exports magazine, said.
Experts have some misgivings about the July 31 deadline
because a contract is usually awarded after a tender,
but as of yet, no tender has been laid out.
According to the navy's Kuroyedov, the keel of a new
large amphibious-landing ship will be finished before
the year is out. That ship will displace 8,000 to 9,000
tons.
"The Russian Navy still has two amphibious landing ships
that are unfit for action," Barabanov said. "It will
take at least five billion rubles to build this ship."
If the tender is completed and the contract signed,
these will be the first new ships for the navy since the
year the Soviet Union collapsed, a navy source said.
"Not a single warship has been designed and built for
the Russian Navy since 1991," he said, adding that the
state has now started setting aside money.
The Russian military ship building industry's recovery
has positively influenced armed exports.
"Naval hardware sales will account for 50% of Russian
arms-export volumes, or more than $2.5 billion this
year," Rosoboronexport head Sergei Chemezov said."
Yet, celebrations of the battle of the Tsushima went on,
smoothly:
Quote:
"One hundred years after Japan crushed Russia at sea and
cemented its role as a global military power, the two
countries are moving cautiously but without much hope to
resolve one of Japan's most protracted disputes.
Japanese military veterans voice open frustration that
little progress has been made to settle the row over
four islands seized by the Soviet Union in 1945 that has
prevented the two neighbors from formally ending World
War II.
But it was a much earlier anniversary that brought some
500 people, from veterans to officials and military
officers from the two countries, to a mass tea ceremony
in the naval port of Yokosuka at the mouth of Tokyo Bay.
The ceremony, a refined Japanese tradition to mark
momentous occasions, took place in front of the restored
Mikasa, the flagship vessel a century ago at the Battle
of Tsushima, known in Japan as the Sea of Japan Naval
Battle.
In the battle, which broke out on May 27, 1905 in the
Tsushima Straits off the Korean Peninsula, Japan nearly
wiped out the Russian fleet in just two days, virtually
ending two years of war in one of the most total naval
victories in history.
The victory shocked Russia, which doubted it had a match
in the Asian nation that just 37 years earlier had
broken out of centuries of self-isolation.
Historians credit the victory with proving Japan's
independence in Western eyes -- but also planting the
seeds of its will to conquer Asia and ultimately suffer
defeat three decades later.
"We have come to a turning point this year," Kenjiro
Moji, counsellor of the Defense Agency, told the
ceremony Tuesday in front of a bronze statue of the
Mikasa's commander, Admiral Heihachiro Togo.
"We are commemorating not only the 100th anniversary of
Japan-Russia War but also the 150th anniversary of the
beginning of relations between Japan and Russia and the
60th anniversary of the end of World War II," said Moji.
"This year, we are to take a fresh step toward the next
half century," he said. "There is room for big progress
in our ties. Through this kind of ceremony, we hope the
Japan-Russia relations will further develop."
One sign of progress came in early May when Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi accepted President Vladimir
Putin's invitation and took part in ceremonies in Moscow
marking the end of World War II in Europe.
"It is necessary for the two countries to develop
relations at a time when we recall various historical
events this year," said Mikhail Galuzin, counsellor and
deputy head of the Russian embassy in Tokyo.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due in Tokyo
next week to discuss arrangements for a delayed visit to
Tokyo by Putin, Galuzin said on the deck of the Mikasa,
which is now open to visitors:
"I think his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister
(Nobutaka) Machimura will be a very important one."
For Japan, ties with Russia are all the more important
now as Tokyo is desperately seeking a permanent seat on
the United Nations Security Council -- an ambition
opposed by China, which accuses Japan of not atoning for
its World War II atrocities.
But Japanese veterans doubt Japan and Russia can strike
a deal on this year of anniversaries. Japan has
demanded the return of all four Kuril islands just off
the coast of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.
"Japan's diplomacy is really sloppy now," said Sadao
Kawakatsu, 82, a former sub-lieutenant of Japan's
wartime navy.
"We are frustrated with the slow pace of talks," said
Kawakatsu, wearing a white navy cap.
"Grassroots cooperation is going well like the Japanese
saying, 'Yesterday's enemy is today's friend'," he said.
"But at the political level, disappointment has
prevailed."
Masayuki Takemiya, another 82-year-old former
sub-lieutenant, said: "The two governments should end
this abnormal situation -- Japan and Russia are still in
a state of war."
Takemiya added: "The two countries must move forward
step by step. But I doubt that Japan can settle the
issue and get the islands back from Russia in a short
period."
Russia has suggested handing back two of the four
islands, which Moscow recognized as Japanese after the
1905 defeat. Soviet troops in 1945 evicted the
residents of the Kurils, known in Japan as the Northern
Territories, and replaced them with Russian settlers.
Foreign minister Machimura told a Japanese newspaper
last week: "If the two countries are to reach an
agreement, that would mean both would have to compromise
on something. Nothing will be born if we only act on
the basis of principles."
Koizumi, however, has refused anything but the return of
all four islands.
But Sen Genshitsu, the grand tea master who led the
intricate ceremony, has not given up hope.
"We must have these kinds of events more often so that
we can understand each other at the level of people"
"The important thing is heart-to-heart dialogue. If my
tea ceremony can help develop Japan-Russia relations,
I'm happy to lead the ceremony again and again."
End of quotes
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Japanese papers blame Junichiro Koizumi for meeting cancellation with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi
Question is : Did Wu Yi really mean to meet Koizumi?
This question is even not asked by Japanese media...
Quote :
Japanese papers have blamed Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's refusal to give up visiting a war shrine for
the sudden cancellation of a meeting with Chinese Vice
Premier Wu Yi, saying an opportunity was missed to
improve tense ties.
Wu on Monday cut short her visit to Japan by one day by
cancelling a meeting with Koizumi. Beijing said only
she had pressing duties at home but later hinted the
shrine issue was the reason.
"It is very likely that Koizumi's remarks on his visit
to the Yasukuni shrine has caused the cancellation," the
liberal daily Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial.
The Mainichi said Wu's cancellation was "extremely
unprecedented" under diplomatic protocol, adding: "It
was very unfortunate since the meeting could have been a
step toward improving Sino-Japanese relations."
A day before Wu's arrival in Japan, Koizumi indicated to
a parliamentary committee on May 16 that he would again
visit the war shrine, which venerates 2.5 million
Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals.
Beijing has repeatedly demanded Koizumi stop his
pilgrimage to Yasukuni while Chinese President Hu Jintao
on Sunday told senior Japanese ruling lawmakers in
Beijing that visits to the war shrine were endangering
ties.
Wu kept her appointments in Tokyo with business leaders,
meeting the chairman of Toyota Motor and addressing a
forum hosted by the Japanese financial daily the Nihon
Keizai Shimbun.
The Nihon Keizai in an editorial Tuesday also
interpreted Wu's abrupt departure as a response to the
shrine row.
Quoting Japanese government sources, the country's
top-selling daily Yomiuri Shimbun said Koizumi's war
shrine visit was likey "the direct cause" for Wu's
cancellation.
(agencies)
This question is even not asked by Japanese media...
Quote :
Japanese papers have blamed Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's refusal to give up visiting a war shrine for
the sudden cancellation of a meeting with Chinese Vice
Premier Wu Yi, saying an opportunity was missed to
improve tense ties.
Wu on Monday cut short her visit to Japan by one day by
cancelling a meeting with Koizumi. Beijing said only
she had pressing duties at home but later hinted the
shrine issue was the reason.
"It is very likely that Koizumi's remarks on his visit
to the Yasukuni shrine has caused the cancellation," the
liberal daily Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial.
The Mainichi said Wu's cancellation was "extremely
unprecedented" under diplomatic protocol, adding: "It
was very unfortunate since the meeting could have been a
step toward improving Sino-Japanese relations."
A day before Wu's arrival in Japan, Koizumi indicated to
a parliamentary committee on May 16 that he would again
visit the war shrine, which venerates 2.5 million
Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals.
Beijing has repeatedly demanded Koizumi stop his
pilgrimage to Yasukuni while Chinese President Hu Jintao
on Sunday told senior Japanese ruling lawmakers in
Beijing that visits to the war shrine were endangering
ties.
Wu kept her appointments in Tokyo with business leaders,
meeting the chairman of Toyota Motor and addressing a
forum hosted by the Japanese financial daily the Nihon
Keizai Shimbun.
The Nihon Keizai in an editorial Tuesday also
interpreted Wu's abrupt departure as a response to the
shrine row.
Quoting Japanese government sources, the country's
top-selling daily Yomiuri Shimbun said Koizumi's war
shrine visit was likey "the direct cause" for Wu's
cancellation.
(agencies)
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Uzbekistan: the domino effect?
Central Asia : Unstable forecast. Uzbek President Islam
Karimov may be the next authoritarian head of state to
fall in former Soviet Central Asia, but he is unlikely
to relinquish power peacefully.
Quote:
"The rising tide of unrest in Uzbekistan is destabilizing
the increasingly authoritarian regime of President Islam
Karimov.
Karimov - who has been president of Uzbekistan since
1990 - shares much in common with other regional
survivors from the Soviet era. He became first
secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan in 1989
and has since managed to hold onto his position despite
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. However,
his record in office has been controversial.
Any challenge to Karimov's rule is routinely branded
'Islamic extremism' and the president has responded with
characteristically colourful language, as well as with
armed force. For example, during a spate of violent
incidents in March 1999, he announced: "I am prepared to
rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their
lives, in order to save peace and calm in the republic.
If my child chose such a path, I myself would rip off
his head."
Although there have been small protests against the
government previously - including a tiny demonstration
involving around 60 people in the capital Tashkent
earlier this month - widespread opposition in the
eastern city of Andijan represents the most serious
challenge to Karimov's authority. Amid unconfirmed
reports that as many as 500 people may have been killed
and thousands of others wounded during a security
crackdown by Uzbek military forces, hundreds of refugees
have already fled across the border into neighbouring
Kyrgyzstan. There is a significant ethnic Uzbek
population living in the border area.
Unlike Askar Akayev, Karimov's fallen counterpart in
Kyrgyzstan, the Uzbek president is unlikely to withdraw
from his country in order to avoid further bloodshed.
This determination to crush all opposition by force
means that further military repression can be expected
as discontent with the regime in Tashkent mounts amid
popular anger over the deaths in Andijan. Uzbekistan is
set to be the next 'domino state' in Central Asia, but
the revolution can be expected to come at a far higher
price than in Kyrgyzstan."
end of quotes
Karimov may be the next authoritarian head of state to
fall in former Soviet Central Asia, but he is unlikely
to relinquish power peacefully.
Quote:
"The rising tide of unrest in Uzbekistan is destabilizing
the increasingly authoritarian regime of President Islam
Karimov.
Karimov - who has been president of Uzbekistan since
1990 - shares much in common with other regional
survivors from the Soviet era. He became first
secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan in 1989
and has since managed to hold onto his position despite
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. However,
his record in office has been controversial.
Any challenge to Karimov's rule is routinely branded
'Islamic extremism' and the president has responded with
characteristically colourful language, as well as with
armed force. For example, during a spate of violent
incidents in March 1999, he announced: "I am prepared to
rip off the heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their
lives, in order to save peace and calm in the republic.
If my child chose such a path, I myself would rip off
his head."
Although there have been small protests against the
government previously - including a tiny demonstration
involving around 60 people in the capital Tashkent
earlier this month - widespread opposition in the
eastern city of Andijan represents the most serious
challenge to Karimov's authority. Amid unconfirmed
reports that as many as 500 people may have been killed
and thousands of others wounded during a security
crackdown by Uzbek military forces, hundreds of refugees
have already fled across the border into neighbouring
Kyrgyzstan. There is a significant ethnic Uzbek
population living in the border area.
Unlike Askar Akayev, Karimov's fallen counterpart in
Kyrgyzstan, the Uzbek president is unlikely to withdraw
from his country in order to avoid further bloodshed.
This determination to crush all opposition by force
means that further military repression can be expected
as discontent with the regime in Tashkent mounts amid
popular anger over the deaths in Andijan. Uzbekistan is
set to be the next 'domino state' in Central Asia, but
the revolution can be expected to come at a far higher
price than in Kyrgyzstan."
end of quotes
Jane's : Naval market in Asia-Pacific on a rising tide
The Asia-Pacific region will overtake Europe and the US
as the world's single largest market for new-build naval
platforms and systems within the next five years,
according to projections prepared by naval analysts and
advisers AMI International.
Major naval modernisation programmes being pursued by
China, India and South Korea are seen as the key drivers
to this continued growth.
Speaking a day before the start of the IMDEX Asia 2005
conference and exhibition, AMI senior analyst Robin Keil
said that while about US$9 billion is currently spent
annually on new naval materiel in western Europe, the
market was "stagnant and likely to decline in the coming
years". Meanwhile, the amount being invested annually
in new warships and outfitting in the US "is likely to
stay at a constant US$10-11 billion for the foreseeable
future".
Example of technology with the Sylena soft-kill system
aimed at small ships
French pyrotechnics group Etienne Lacroix, working in
association with EADS Defence and Communications
Systems, has unveiled a new multimode soft-kill decoy
system specifically designed to protect smaller surface
combatants such as patrol vessels, fast attack craft and
corvettes.
Known as Sylena, the new system combines a below-decks
control processor with multiple compact fixed launchers
firing SEALEM radio frequency (RF), SEALIR infra-red
(IR) decoy rounds and deck-edge SEA MOSC optronic
screening/masking devices. According to a Lacroix
spokesman Serge Bidan, the low size, mass and radar
cross-section (RCS) of topside launcher equipment has
been designed to minimise ship fit impact and maintain
stealth attributes aboard low-RCS ship designs.
A typical Sylena configuration for a patrol craft would
use two launchers plus four SEAMOSC screening
'suitcases', with the number of launchers increasing to
four for fast attack craft and corvettes. Lacroix said
that the new suite could provide protection against
between six and 12 threats without reloading."
end of quotes
as the world's single largest market for new-build naval
platforms and systems within the next five years,
according to projections prepared by naval analysts and
advisers AMI International.
Major naval modernisation programmes being pursued by
China, India and South Korea are seen as the key drivers
to this continued growth.
Speaking a day before the start of the IMDEX Asia 2005
conference and exhibition, AMI senior analyst Robin Keil
said that while about US$9 billion is currently spent
annually on new naval materiel in western Europe, the
market was "stagnant and likely to decline in the coming
years". Meanwhile, the amount being invested annually
in new warships and outfitting in the US "is likely to
stay at a constant US$10-11 billion for the foreseeable
future".
Example of technology with the Sylena soft-kill system
aimed at small ships
French pyrotechnics group Etienne Lacroix, working in
association with EADS Defence and Communications
Systems, has unveiled a new multimode soft-kill decoy
system specifically designed to protect smaller surface
combatants such as patrol vessels, fast attack craft and
corvettes.
Known as Sylena, the new system combines a below-decks
control processor with multiple compact fixed launchers
firing SEALEM radio frequency (RF), SEALIR infra-red
(IR) decoy rounds and deck-edge SEA MOSC optronic
screening/masking devices. According to a Lacroix
spokesman Serge Bidan, the low size, mass and radar
cross-section (RCS) of topside launcher equipment has
been designed to minimise ship fit impact and maintain
stealth attributes aboard low-RCS ship designs.
A typical Sylena configuration for a patrol craft would
use two launchers plus four SEAMOSC screening
'suitcases', with the number of launchers increasing to
four for fast attack craft and corvettes. Lacroix said
that the new suite could provide protection against
between six and 12 threats without reloading."
end of quotes
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Japanese Princess Nori to marry mid November with commoner
Interesting to notice the good timing of the
announcement related to Princess Nori engagement and
wedding.
First: it follows, October 2004, a tough palace quarrel
around the issue of whether singing Japan's national
anthem should be compulsory in schools, quarrels
immediately toned down April 25 2005 by emperor Akihito
himself who admitted that it was important to teach
respect for the anthem and flag as symbols of the nation
but also to consider the feelings of the people.
Japan's "Hinomaru" flag and "Kimigayo" anthem have long
been seen by some at home and other parts of Asia as a
symbol of Japan's past militarism.
The first October event with Akihito stirred controversy
when he told a guest at a royal garden party that
teachers and students should not be forced to sing the
anthem while facing the flag. (Ishihara's ears heard
the bells)
Second, it happens while Japan's history is the focus of
attention of the whole Asian region, for its military
past.
Asia watchers remember that Mr. Kuroda's (a Tokyo city
bureaucrat) attraction for the daughter of the emperor ,
was announced late autumn. Some watchers based in Tokyo
noticed how Governor Ishihara hurried in any media
events to convey his views, sometimes in secret meetings
to editorial writers at such place as the National press
club!
Latest announcement, quote:
"Princess Nori, Emperor Akihito's only daughter, will
marry Tokyo Metropolitan Government employee Yoshiki
Kuroda in a Nov. 15 ceremony, the Imperial Household
Agency said Wednesday.
The ceremony will take place at the Imperial Hotel in
Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, in the presence of Emperor Akihito
and Empress Michiko, the agency said.
The princess, whose other formal name is Princess
Sayako, and Kuroda will hold a Shinto wedding ceremony,
according to their wishes.
The agency announced the engagement of the 36-year-old
princess and Kuroda, 40, in late December.
The couple were formally engaged in March through the
traditional Nosai no Gi betrothal rite, the first in a
series of court ceremonies before the wedding. They
have more rites to go thorough, including the Choken no
Gi rite of audience, where the Emperor and Empress
receive the princess' official farewell."
end of quotes
Let's hope that they will live happily, long, and have
many male or female children.
announcement related to Princess Nori engagement and
wedding.
First: it follows, October 2004, a tough palace quarrel
around the issue of whether singing Japan's national
anthem should be compulsory in schools, quarrels
immediately toned down April 25 2005 by emperor Akihito
himself who admitted that it was important to teach
respect for the anthem and flag as symbols of the nation
but also to consider the feelings of the people.
Japan's "Hinomaru" flag and "Kimigayo" anthem have long
been seen by some at home and other parts of Asia as a
symbol of Japan's past militarism.
The first October event with Akihito stirred controversy
when he told a guest at a royal garden party that
teachers and students should not be forced to sing the
anthem while facing the flag. (Ishihara's ears heard
the bells)
Second, it happens while Japan's history is the focus of
attention of the whole Asian region, for its military
past.
Asia watchers remember that Mr. Kuroda's (a Tokyo city
bureaucrat) attraction for the daughter of the emperor ,
was announced late autumn. Some watchers based in Tokyo
noticed how Governor Ishihara hurried in any media
events to convey his views, sometimes in secret meetings
to editorial writers at such place as the National press
club!
Latest announcement, quote:
"Princess Nori, Emperor Akihito's only daughter, will
marry Tokyo Metropolitan Government employee Yoshiki
Kuroda in a Nov. 15 ceremony, the Imperial Household
Agency said Wednesday.
The ceremony will take place at the Imperial Hotel in
Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, in the presence of Emperor Akihito
and Empress Michiko, the agency said.
The princess, whose other formal name is Princess
Sayako, and Kuroda will hold a Shinto wedding ceremony,
according to their wishes.
The agency announced the engagement of the 36-year-old
princess and Kuroda, 40, in late December.
The couple were formally engaged in March through the
traditional Nosai no Gi betrothal rite, the first in a
series of court ceremonies before the wedding. They
have more rites to go thorough, including the Choken no
Gi rite of audience, where the Emperor and Empress
receive the princess' official farewell."
end of quotes
Let's hope that they will live happily, long, and have
many male or female children.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee hostile to Yasukuni Shrine VIP visits
After China and Korea's, Singapore...
Quotes:
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday
rapped Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for
indicating he would visit Yasukuni Shrine again this
year.
In an interview with Japanese reporters ahead of his
trip to Japan next week, Lee said Koizumi's continued
visits to the war-linked shrine would show a lack of
repentance for Japanese military atrocities during World
War II and could hurt the progress of Japan's ties with
Asian countries.
"From the point of view of many countries in the region
who have experienced Japanese occupation, it raises many
unhappy memories," he said.
"A visit to the shrine is interpreted by many people, I
think including many in Singapore, as being a gesture of
not entirely accepting responsibility and not accepting
that Japan did wrong during the war and that these were
war criminals and they should not be honored," he said.
The criticism is one the harshest leveled by a Singapore
leader over visits by Japanese prime ministers to the
shrine in Tokyo.
Although Singapore was invaded and occupied by Japanese
troops from 1942 to 1945 and more than 50,000 civilians
are believed to have been killed during the period,
controversies over Japan's wartime atrocities generally
do not rouse as much ire here as in China or South
Korea.
Lee said visits to the shrine were a stumbling block for
Japan's relations with neighboring Asian countries as it
showed that Japan had not come to terms with its
militarist past, unlike Germany.
"As a result, when a visit takes place, the temperature
goes up all over the region, especially in China and
especially in Korea. That is regrettable because in
fact we should be looking ahead, looking towards the
future and how we can work together rather than be tied
up with the past, but unless we comes to terms with the
past and acknowledge it, then it's very difficult to
move ahead," he said.
Koizumi hinted Monday that he will visit Yasukuni Shrine
despite repeated objections by Beijing and said other
countries should not interfere in the way Japan mourns
its war dead.
Yasukuni Shrine is regarded as the symbol of Japanese
militarism by China and South Korea because it enshrines
war criminals along with the war dead.
Lee said that the Japanese government's recent approval
of controversial revisions to school textbooks, which
Asian countries perceive as whitewashing Japan's wartime
military atrocities, is another sign that Japan had "not
come to terms with the past."
Lee, however, expressed appreciation for Japan's
positive contributions to Southeast Asia over the past
decades and said he believes that Japan will continue to
play an important role in the region despite the rapid
economic rise of China.
He said that Singapore looked forward to Japan playing a
bigger role in the region and would be willing to back
Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N.
Security Council.
"You are a natural candidate, you make many
international contributions, and you have the ability to
contribute internationally to peace and stability and
prosperity in the world," he said, though adding that
reforming the United Nations and expanding the permanent
membership is likely to be a "long and difficult
process."
"China is growing rapidly but Japan is still a lot
bigger" in terms of the breadth and depth of its
economy, technological prowess, and the sheer scale of
its overseas investment, he said. "There are many
things which Japan can do which China will not be able
to do for quite a long time, and I think there is a role
for Japan to play in the region," he said.
On Japan's proposal for co-chairmanship of the first
East Asia Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur in December
this year, Lee said he wants the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations to play a central role as the
"core" participant of the summit.
The summit is expected to include the 10 ASEAN members,
Japan, China, South Korea, plus possibly India,
Australia and New Zealand.
Asked about whether he thinks the United States, which
has often insisted it should not be left out of major
groupings in Asia, could participate in the summit, Lee
said "I am not sure that the U.S. would fit in
naturally."
"They have an interest in what is happening in the
Asia-Pacific, but if you look on the other side of the
Pacific, there are groupings, NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Agreement)...which they participate in and we
accept that's part of the regional cooperation in the
two Americas."
Lee also urged Japan to hurry up in forming a good
free-trade deal with ASEAN, saying it was in Japan's
strategic interest to do so. He said current
negotiations have been bogged down by political
sensitivities in Japan over market access to
agricultural products and moved at a slower pace than
ASEAN's FTA talks with China.
"From a strategic point of view, it is in Japan's
interest to have a good FTA with Southeast Asia, with
ASEAN, and we hope that will develop," he said.
Lee, who assumed the premiership late last year, is
expected to hold talks with Koizumi during his visit to
Japan from May 23 to 28. He said he would like to
encourage Japan to continue to play an active role in
the development of Southeast Asia during the trip, and
contribute more in non-economic areas, and also urge
Japanese companies to invest in Singapore.
end of quotes
Quotes:
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday
rapped Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for
indicating he would visit Yasukuni Shrine again this
year.
In an interview with Japanese reporters ahead of his
trip to Japan next week, Lee said Koizumi's continued
visits to the war-linked shrine would show a lack of
repentance for Japanese military atrocities during World
War II and could hurt the progress of Japan's ties with
Asian countries.
"From the point of view of many countries in the region
who have experienced Japanese occupation, it raises many
unhappy memories," he said.
"A visit to the shrine is interpreted by many people, I
think including many in Singapore, as being a gesture of
not entirely accepting responsibility and not accepting
that Japan did wrong during the war and that these were
war criminals and they should not be honored," he said.
The criticism is one the harshest leveled by a Singapore
leader over visits by Japanese prime ministers to the
shrine in Tokyo.
Although Singapore was invaded and occupied by Japanese
troops from 1942 to 1945 and more than 50,000 civilians
are believed to have been killed during the period,
controversies over Japan's wartime atrocities generally
do not rouse as much ire here as in China or South
Korea.
Lee said visits to the shrine were a stumbling block for
Japan's relations with neighboring Asian countries as it
showed that Japan had not come to terms with its
militarist past, unlike Germany.
"As a result, when a visit takes place, the temperature
goes up all over the region, especially in China and
especially in Korea. That is regrettable because in
fact we should be looking ahead, looking towards the
future and how we can work together rather than be tied
up with the past, but unless we comes to terms with the
past and acknowledge it, then it's very difficult to
move ahead," he said.
Koizumi hinted Monday that he will visit Yasukuni Shrine
despite repeated objections by Beijing and said other
countries should not interfere in the way Japan mourns
its war dead.
Yasukuni Shrine is regarded as the symbol of Japanese
militarism by China and South Korea because it enshrines
war criminals along with the war dead.
Lee said that the Japanese government's recent approval
of controversial revisions to school textbooks, which
Asian countries perceive as whitewashing Japan's wartime
military atrocities, is another sign that Japan had "not
come to terms with the past."
Lee, however, expressed appreciation for Japan's
positive contributions to Southeast Asia over the past
decades and said he believes that Japan will continue to
play an important role in the region despite the rapid
economic rise of China.
He said that Singapore looked forward to Japan playing a
bigger role in the region and would be willing to back
Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N.
Security Council.
"You are a natural candidate, you make many
international contributions, and you have the ability to
contribute internationally to peace and stability and
prosperity in the world," he said, though adding that
reforming the United Nations and expanding the permanent
membership is likely to be a "long and difficult
process."
"China is growing rapidly but Japan is still a lot
bigger" in terms of the breadth and depth of its
economy, technological prowess, and the sheer scale of
its overseas investment, he said. "There are many
things which Japan can do which China will not be able
to do for quite a long time, and I think there is a role
for Japan to play in the region," he said.
On Japan's proposal for co-chairmanship of the first
East Asia Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur in December
this year, Lee said he wants the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations to play a central role as the
"core" participant of the summit.
The summit is expected to include the 10 ASEAN members,
Japan, China, South Korea, plus possibly India,
Australia and New Zealand.
Asked about whether he thinks the United States, which
has often insisted it should not be left out of major
groupings in Asia, could participate in the summit, Lee
said "I am not sure that the U.S. would fit in
naturally."
"They have an interest in what is happening in the
Asia-Pacific, but if you look on the other side of the
Pacific, there are groupings, NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Agreement)...which they participate in and we
accept that's part of the regional cooperation in the
two Americas."
Lee also urged Japan to hurry up in forming a good
free-trade deal with ASEAN, saying it was in Japan's
strategic interest to do so. He said current
negotiations have been bogged down by political
sensitivities in Japan over market access to
agricultural products and moved at a slower pace than
ASEAN's FTA talks with China.
"From a strategic point of view, it is in Japan's
interest to have a good FTA with Southeast Asia, with
ASEAN, and we hope that will develop," he said.
Lee, who assumed the premiership late last year, is
expected to hold talks with Koizumi during his visit to
Japan from May 23 to 28. He said he would like to
encourage Japan to continue to play an active role in
the development of Southeast Asia during the trip, and
contribute more in non-economic areas, and also urge
Japanese companies to invest in Singapore.
end of quotes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)