CHINA: The Forbidden City

The magnificent Forbidden City, so named because it was off-limits to commoners for 500 years, was the imperial court for twenty-four emperors from the early days of the Ming dynasty in the 15th century until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. It is the largest, most complete, and best-preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China, representing the work of battalions of laborers. Fires and lootings over the years have left a largely post-18th-century shell that mimics its original layout, and much of its storied wealth and opulent furnishings are long gone. Nonetheless, this vast complex of halls, pavilions, courtyards, and walls is a masterwork of architectural balance, monumental but never oppressive. A self-guiding tape narrated by Roger Moore helps bring it alive, with tales of eunuchs, concubines, ministers, priests, court intrigues, and terrific excesses. Occupying more than 183 acres, the expansive complex earns the title of "city." It was not unusual for emperors and servants alike never to venture beyond the moat-surrounded 35-foot walls and formidable gates - ever. That they believed themselves to be at the cosmic center of the universe is a fantasy visitors can readily appreciate today.

 Image brought to you courtesy of GalleryPlayer's Image Collection.

View article…

CHINA & JAPAN: Shanghai Expo Pays 300 Million Yen for Plagiarized Japanese Song

Just a little update on the 2010 Shanghai Expo song scandal, to let all of you who followed the story here on Japan Probe know that it seems to have been resolved in a satisfactory manner:

The Shanghai World Expo will pay 300 million Japanese yen (approximately US$3.2 million) to Japanese singer Maya Okamoto for plagiarizing her song, according to a report published on Japanese news websites last week.

The song Right Here Waiting for You 2010 was used for the month of promotion leading up to the opening of the Shanghai World Expo and organizers had reportedly spent 10 million yuan (US$1.46 million) producing the song.

Soon after its premiere on Chinese television on April 1, Internet users pointed out that 95 percent of the melody was identical to Japanese pop singer Maya Okamoto’s Stay the Way You Are from 1997.

View article...

EAST ASIA: Reconsidering Genghis Khan

This statue of Genghis Khan is a reproduction of a huge statue that sits in front of a government building in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It is one of many images of Genghis Khan that appear throughout the city. (Photo by Batsaikhan M)

Posted: 05/20/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT

By Charlie McCollum

In history written from a Western perspective, Genghis Khan — the ruler of the 13th-century Mongolian empire — occupies a place of infamy, perceived as a brutal, ruthless and primitive warlord who brought death and destruction to the civilized world.

When Don Lessem — the organizer of "Genghis Khan: The Exhibition," which opens Saturday at the Tech Museum — first traveled to Mongolia in the late 1980s, he had the Western view of Genghis. But then, he says,

"I saw all these glowing descriptions of him and all the statues to him and thought, 'Why?' Because I had this impression of him as a bloodthirsty villain. Then the Mongolian people set me straight, and I came away thinking, 'This guy is incredible.' "

In fact, says William Fitzhugh of the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Center, Genghis was an extraordinary ruler whose historical legacy needs to be reassessed in the West.

Records from the period, many only now being uncovered,

"give you a view of a person who is a superb organizer, a superb lawmaker, a fair and judicious ruler, somebody who supported women and gave women a lot of rights," says Fitzhugh, who is a consultant for the exhibition. "It's wrong to say that Genghis created a democracy, but, for the time, he was remarkably enlightened."

It is the accomplishments of this "other Genghis" — as well as the achievements of his sons and grandsons — that are at the heart of the show, which recently drew 175,000 visitors during a three-month run at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In the exhibit, which will take up 14,000 square feet in Parkside Hall adjacent to the Tech, there is an array of artifacts, many of which have never previously left Mongolia, and elaborate re-creations of Mongolian life during Genghis' time.

"We're always trying to mirror Silicon Valley," says Elizabeth Williams, vice-president of marketing for the Tech. "Each of the big exhibitions we've had here — 'The Human Body,' 'Leonardo,' 'Star Trek' — have had that spirit of Silicon Valley, innovative, global impact component. It also dovetails nicely with the technology piece, because similar to what Leonardo was doing back in his day, Genghis Khan had some similar impact in terms of the warfare technology. And I think it has that educational component that we're always looking for as well."

Genghis Khan was born around 1162 into one of the many nomadic tribes that roamed what is now Mongolia. He was illiterate and was born into a hard life. But by 1206, he had united all the warring Mongolian factions. Before his death in 1227,

"in the space of just two decades, he was able to set the foundation of the Mongol Empire, which then rolled on until long after he died," Fitzhugh notes.

At its height, the Mongol Empire — ruled by Genghis' sons and grandsons — covered nearly 13 million square miles (four times the size of the Roman Empire at its height) and stretched from the Danube River in Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan. It held sway over more than 100 million people. It promoted free trade from China to Europe (the so-called Silk Road) and incorporated technologies from conquered countries into the empire's way of life.

Genghis "wanted to be a benevolent ruler of a civilized world," Lessem says. "Once you were in the pale of the empire, it was a wonderful place to live — for the time."

For one thing, Fitzhugh says, Genghis displayed a religious tolerance uncommon in that era.

"He allowed all faiths to be represented in Karakorum, the capital city. There were at least 15 religious temples in the city. There were Hindus, Buddhists and Shamanists and Christians of various types. In fact, the Christians were quite powerful."

Another aspect of his rule was a reliance on a meritocracy,

"which was a real breakthrough because — up until that time — the leaders, the generals, had always been picked on the basis of clan affiliation," Fitzhugh says. "All that meant was that everybody fought with everybody. So he broke down all those clans and set up a military that — although it was controlled by the central government — was an army where all the general and officers were chosen on the basis of performance and loyalty.  So you could be a slave who was captured by the Mongols, and 10 years later, you could be a Mongol general."

While there have been museum exhibits about Genghis' time in the past, Lessem notes that

"they all basically just used his name and included very few pieces from the period.  So I went to the Mongolian government, and because they are such a small country, they were willing to let a private exhibit person work with them and try to mount an exhibition. They knew I cared about the subject, and they thought I would treat it right. So they were willing to loan me just about anything they had from his time."

Although Fitzhugh notes that "there's hardly anything that is known to have been owned by Genghis or that his hand touched," Lessem and his consultants were able to assemble close to 250 artifacts drawn from Mongolia's Archaeology Institute, five Mongolian museums, private collectors and — in the case of an 800-year-old mummy — the Smithsonian. They include shamans' costumes, elaborately woven silk robes, finely crafted gold bracelets and beautifully detailed swords, saddles and armor from the period.

But, Lessem says,

"this is not an artifact exhibit per se. What I don't like is going to exhibits and just seeing things in cases — no matter how cool. To me, that's not a learning experience or a fun experience."

The exhibition has 10 videos on aspects of life at the time, giant video maps, interactive (and kid-friendly) games and one exhibit that gives you the sense of being caught in the middle of a herd of horses. There are replicas of tribal villages and such war technology as a trebuchet, a siege engine designed by Chinese engineers that the Mongolians incorporated into their armies.

Each visitor's ticket has a representation of one of five or six different people who would have lived during the time of the empire, and in each room, there are computers where you can go and see what happens to that person over the course of time.

In addition,

"we have a whole bunch of demonstrators showing how the villages were set up and letting you fire a catapult," Lessem says. "You get to put on Mongolian-style robes, and what I really like is that we have live entertainment every day for a couple of hours. The same traditions of dance and music that were around then are still around now — which is wonderful."

Fitzhugh predicts that those who visit the exhibit will not only come away with just a very different view of Genghis Khan but also of "ancient history in Asia, something Americans generally don't know very much about.

"That's the central thrust of the exhibit: Let's familiarize Americans with a particular period of Mongol history from a time when Mongol and Asian history changed the world."

Genghis Khan: The Exhibition

When: Saturday through Nov. 1
Where: The Tech Museum,
201 S. Market St.,
San Jose, California
Tickets: $15-$25, www.thetech.org

Related Stories

• May 21:
• Pizarro: 'Genghis Khan' exhibition worth invading

View article…

TRAVEL: Delta receives final approval for Seattle-Beijing service

Delta Air Lines says it has received final Chinese government approval to launch nonstop flights between Seattle and Beijing, beginning June 4. The new route, which will operate five times weekly, will connect customers from destinations throughout Delta's and codeshare partner Alaska Air Group's network to the Chinese capital.

Departure and arrival times have been revised from the initial announcement. Flights from Seattle and Beijing will depart at 9:05 p.m. and 8:55 a.m., respectively. - By Roger Yu

View article...

TIBET: Teacher

Mario Tama / Getty Images

 

The Dalai Lama delivers a teaching at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

View article...

JAPAN: Fish Forwards

 Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

A blue tang, symbolising Japan's national soccer team, and a flame angelfish, symbolising Denmark's national soccer team, swim near a transparent "soccer" ball containing fish food inside a tank made to look like a soccer stadium at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, Japan. The two teams are part of Group E in the upcoming 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

View article...

JAPAN: Sign Language: Rear view

Rear view

Location: aquarium in Shimoda, Japan

Spotted by: Simon Enstone

View article…

THE KOREAS: Today in Korean History

May 20

1949 -- Kim Yak-su and Lee Mun-won, then lawmakers in South Korea's first National Assembly, are arrested for arguing for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country and negotiations for reunification of the two Koreas. As a result of their assertions, the two lawmakers were accused of being communist sympathizers.

1954 -- The country's third parliamentary election is held.

1962 -- The South Korean government revives a nationwide curfew. The curfew was originally imposed in 1945 and finally abolished in 1982.

1980 -- The Supreme Court confirms the death sentence for Kim Jae-gyu, former head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, who assassinated then President Park Chung-hee in October 1979. He was executed in May 1980.

1986 -- Lee Dong-su, a student activist at Seoul National University, burns himself to death at the school's student center, calling for "the eradication of U.S. imperialism" and punishment of then President Chun Doo-hwan, who Lee called a fascist.

2003 -- Lee Keun-young, former head of the Financial Supervisory Commission, is arrested on charges of arranging illegal loans to Hyundai affiliates in 2000 in connection with a scandal involving payoffs to North Korea ahead of the first-ever inter-Korean summit.

View article…

THE KOREAS: Ling Sisters Recount Laura's Capture In North Korea

Vice President Al Gore hugs Laura Ling as Euna Lee greets President Bill Clinton upon their arrival in California on Aug. 5, 2009. Following a meeting in Pyongyang with Clinton, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned Ling and Lee, allowing them to return to the U.S.  AFP/Robyn Beck/Getty Images

May 19, 2010

On March 17, 2009, journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were apprehended by North Korean soldiers while filming a documentary along the China-North Korea border. The two women were charged with illegal entry for crossing into North Korea — and after several months of interrogation by North Korean officials, sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in one of North Korea's prison camps.

After finding out that Laura had been arrested in North Korea, Lisa Ling — Laura's sister and a special correspondent on The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN — started calling every diplomatic official she knew. She also contacted other journalists to publicize Laura's ordeal. For several weeks, Lisa appeared on national media outlets alongside other family members as part of a campaign to bring the two journalists home.

In an interview with Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies, the sisters describe their dual experiences with Laura's detention and release. They detail their infrequent phone conversations, in which Laura was able to tell Lisa that the only way she and Euna would be released was if a special envoy — former President Bill Clinton — traveled to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Clinton made the trip in August 2009, after Laura and Euna had spent 140 days in captivity, and helped secure their release.

Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home
By Laura Ling and Lisa Ling
Hardcover, 336 pages
William Morrow
List price: $26.99

Laura and Lisa Ling's book about the five-month ordeal is called Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other Sister's Fight to Bring Her Home. Lisa Ling is also the author of Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood. She is the host of National Geographic Explorer and reports frequently for The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. Laura Ling is a reporter for Current TV, where she explores the effects of globalization.

---

Interview Highlights

On the story Laura Ling and Euna Lee were looking for at the China-North Korea border

Laura Ling: "We were covering a story about North Korean defectors, people who are fleeing the very desperate conditions in North Korea — mass starvation, a brutal dictatorship — and they're crossing over into China. Now many of these defectors are women, and many of these women are trafficked into really horrendous situations in neighboring China. They are forced into marriages. They are lured into the prostitution industry. And because China does not regard North Korean defectors as refugees ... they will send them back across the border to North Korea if they are caught. And that means that these people face certain punishment. They will be sent to North Korea's notorious labor camps and possibly face torture or worse. That's the story I was trying to bring to light for Current TV."

On the local guide they hired to take them to the border

Laura Ling: "Foreign journalists who are working overseas often hire what we call fixers — local guides in the area who have worked with other media entities before to help them with the story. And this is a man we had hired who had previously seemed very cautious. And there were some actions that were in retrospect very suspicious. ... We went to the river to film the thoroughfare where North Koreans are crossing into China. It was never our intention when we were there that morning to cross the [Tumen] River [that separates China and North Korea]. And our guide began making some low hooting noises across the border. ... Now previously, our guide had told us that he had connections in North Korea. Our guide was involved in smuggling goods himself. And so, in my mind, I thought he was trying to make a connection with some of the border guards that he knew. He said in the past that he had taken some media to actually converse with some of these border guards on the other side. And he continued to walk closer to the North Korean side of the river and he got to the other side, stepped foot on the soil and motioned for us to follow him, which we did. We ended up on the other side of the border, and he pointed out safe houses where defectors are kept until they're ready to be smuggled across the border. And really, it was about that time — we were not on the soil for more than a minute — when we knew we had to leave. And that's when we turned back and walked back across the ice to the Chinese side."

Lisa Ling (left) went on Larry King Live to plead for her sister Laura's release. She chose CNN, she writes in Somewhere Inside, because Kim Jong Il reportedly watches it in Pyongyang.  Courtesy of Laura and Lisa Ling

On what they initially told their captors

Laura Ling: "When we were initially caught, Euna had told our captors that we were students, that we were working on a documentary and were working on the piece about the border region and trade in the region. We knew that the subject we were covering — North Koreans fleeing these horrible conditions in their country — was not going to be looked upon well by our captors. And so we were hoping, while we were still on the border, that we might be able to convince them to send us back across the border to China. And that became very clear, after about 24 hours, that that was not going to happen."

On Lisa's reaction when she found out Laura had been detained

Lisa Ling: "I got a call at 2:30 in the morning on March 17 from my brother-in-law, Laura's husband, Ian. And he said, 'Laura has been abducted by North Korean border guards.' And that just sent a complete shock through my system because Laura — there was never any intention to go anywhere near North Korea. Their assignment was to go to China and South Korea, so we were shocked. I knew the story they were covering, but I didn't think they were going to get close to North Korea. So Ian and I immediately — I had Ian call our parents because we needed our mother to make contact with Chinese authorities in China, and she's proficient in Mandarin — and I just started calling everyone in the diplomatic world that I knew. One of my first calls was to Richard Holbrooke, who was the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and the most senior diplomat I know. And I wanted to get word to Secretary of State Clinton that this was happening. And one of the first calls we also made was to the chairman of Current TV, Laura's employer, [former] Vice President Al Gore. Because we felt like, if this was going to become the international incident that we thought it could, we needed Vice President Gore to help us."

On Laura's reaction when she was sentenced to 12 years of hard labor

Laura Ling: "I had tried to prepare myself for a lengthy sentence but nothing could prepare me for the verdict, when I heard the words '12 years.' And it was after the judge said '12 years,' he said, 'No forgiveness, no appeal.' And that really cut into me, because all along I had been hoping that there might be the opportunity for an appeal despite the long sentence. And I was wondering if those words meant that the window of opportunity had closed and my fate was sealed."

Lisa and Laura Ling grew up in Sacramento, Calif. The two sisters say the North Korean incident brought them closer together.  Courtesy of Laura and Lisa Ling

On former President Clinton's arrival in North Korea

Lisa Ling: "We're so used to seeing a jovial character, and when he descended off that plane, just to see that completely deadpan expression on his face was so out of the ordinary."

Laura Ling: "And he later said that he, in fact, had to practice [his stoicism]. That Hillary and Chelsea had to coach him so that he could maintain that look of total stoicism. We also learned that there was a whole itinerary that the North Koreans wanted [President] Clinton and his team to attend, visits to various monuments — a whole stadium filled with child acrobatic performers. And they had to be careful to walk that line and not attend any of those events so as not to seem like they were being chummy with the North Koreans or the North Korean leader. ... And I think they walked that line very well. They stuck to the mission at hand, which was to bring us home."

Lisa Ling: "No money was exchanged and no diplomacy was conducted. It truly was a private humanitarian mission."

View article…

JAPAN: Behold, Japan's Largest Elevator

Enormous Elevator This elevator can hold 80 people. Mitsubishi Elevator

Posted 05.19.2010 at 6:00 pm

By Rebecca Boyle

A new Japanese office building that opened earlier this month in Osaka is home to two dozen ginormous window-view elevators, the largest in Japan.

Each can hold 80 passengers and are 12 feet wide, 9 feet long and 8.5 feet high, with a floor space of about 102 square feet.

Japanese architecture is often notable for its smallness -- this is the country that invented the capsule hotel, after all. But the commodious elevator is a more efficient way to move large amounts of people.

They are operated as shuttles between Hankyu Department Store’s Umeda store and several floors of offices, according to a press release [PDF].

The department store is located near one of Japan’s largest train terminals, and the shops nearby are a popular destination, meaning the elevators will probably see much more traffic than the picture shown above.

The Japanese also want to be the first to elevate to space, so perhaps it makes sense they’d install an enormous one in a building first.

[via Gizmodo]

View article…

SHANGHAI, CHINA: A Bed for the High and Mighty

World's Best Hotel Beds

by Josey Miller

From such great heights: Each guest room on the 88th floor of the Park Hyatt Shanghai boasts the highest hotel bed in the world—and the view to prove it. Talk about bragging rights.

Snooze factor: Way up there. If you're looking for calm in this chaotic city setting, dream on; despite the sleek and sophisticated decor, the hotel is surrounded by Shanghai's frenzied Lujiazui financial district. But once the workday is done, you can escape to the Park Hyatt's Tai Chi courtyard, the Water's Edge Spa—or your private room. Besides sweeping views of the Bund or the Huangpu River, 88th-floor guest rooms feature a bathing area with a heated floor and a rain shower that streams water down from—surprise, surprise—unusually high 12-foot ceilings. Now that's uplifting.

Who goes there: Needless to say, a sky-scraping bed 1,279 feet above street level is not intended for the acrophobic. But if you're a thrill-seeker with an appetite for power and the "Vertical City" is just the first stop in your plot to conquer the world, this is the bed for you.

Undercover info: Want to get really high? Take the elevator to the 100 Century Avenue bar on the 92nd floor for another moment of Zen: sipping sparkling wine while listening to live jazz and watching the sun set through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Park Hyatt Shanghai
Tel: 86 21 6888 1234
Rooms on the 88th floor from $849

INTERESTED IN THIS DESTINATION?

See all our expert advice and travel recommendations for:

• Shanghai

But Wait—There's More

Find other great ideas in these related stories:

• World's Sexiest Beach Hotels ›
• Hot New Hotels Under $200 ›
• World's Best Hotel Bathrooms ›
• Readers' Favorite Hotels 2009 ›
• Hot Hotels Under $150 ›
• Geek Hotels ›
• Hawaii Hotels Caught on Tape ›
• Quick Romantic Getaways ›
• The World's Sexiest Winter Lodges ›
• Celebrity Hotel Hookups ›
• Luxury for Less ›

View article…

JAPAN & CHINA: Chinese Tourists Lack Proper Toilet Manners?

NTV News had a segment the other day about how the huge increase in Chinese tourists visiting Japan. It included this clip about “cultural differences” about toilet use:

Apparently many Chinese tourists are not properly using the sinks in bathrooms and some aren’t using toilets in a cleanly manner. We are shown some public restrooms that have put up signs in Chinese asking people to please be clean and to turn off the water in the sinks when they are finished washing their hands.

Also included is an interview with a staff person at the Prince Hotel in Hakone, who says that Chinese men and women who want extra towels sometimes leave bathing areas fully nude, much to the shock of Japanese guests. The hotel has printed multi-lingual instructions on proper use of bathing facilities.

View article...

JAPAN: Soak up a sprinkling of rain-component kanji

雨

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

By MARY SISK NOGUCHI, Special to The Japan Times

The kanji compound word for Japan's annual rainy season — set to commence in early June — is the poetic 梅雨 ("plum rain," baiu/tsuyu), but any resident of the archipelago whose closets have been invaded by noxious green mold during 梅雨 will appreciate why it was originally written 黴雨 ("moldy rain," also pronounced baiu).

The second kanji in 梅雨, 雨 (rain, ame), comprises a horizontal line, representing the heavens, with clouds and four raindrops underneath. The vertical line in 雨 symbolizes "descent from the heavens." The kanji 雨 serves in a dozen general-use characters and always occupies the celestial (top) position. Most rain-component kanji represent meteorological concepts, but there are exceptions.

In ancient, fire-lit China, (Chinese reading in caps) 電 (DEN) meant "lightning," but now it mostly refers to "electricity." 電 was the first rain-component kanji my bicultural American/Japanese sons analyzed, at my urging, as second-graders. Sean saw a lightning bolt (し) running through a rice field (田) under a rainy sky. Lukas imagined Benjamin Franklin standing in a rainstorm clutching a kite (田) with a tail (し). On a recent family trip to China, we noted the simplified People's Republic of China (PRC) character for "electricity" was missing the rain element, consisting only of Lukas' "kite."

Tailless 雷 (RAI/kaminari) is used today in Japan for both lightning and thunder. 雷 was originally written with three rice fields (田) at the bottom, instead of one, lending a connotation of reverberation. Together, 雷 and 電 form the compound word "thunderbolt" (雷電, raiden, thunder/electricity).

震 (SHIN, shake) originally referred to a violent storm that shook buildings and trees. Now it just means "shake." Its bottom component, 辰, derives from a pictograph of a shell encasing a clam with protruding feelers. Clam shells were used in ancient China as cutting tools, including those swung to and fro (with a related meaning of "shaken") at harvest time. "Earthquake" in Japanese is "ground shake" (地震, jishin).

The bottom component of 霊 (REI, spirit) once pictured a shamaness possessed by heavenly spirits, but has now evolved into a variant of 並 (nara-bu, lineup). (The two strokes at the top of 並 form a horizontal line in 霊.) Picturing a row of spirits lined up outside their tombstones on a dark rainy night makes the shape and meaning of 霊 a snap to remember. 霊園 (reien, spirit/garden), incidentally, means "cemetery."

Inspect the lower half of 需 (JU, demand), and you will see a component derived from a pictograph of facial hair (而), with a horizontal mustache and four-whisker beard still in evidence: When a man's beard gets soaked with rainwater, he demands shelter.

雰 (FUN, atmosphere) pictures raindrops "divided" (分, FUN/wa-keru) into microscopic parts. 雲 (kumo, cloud) is comprised of 雨 and a variant of "meet" (会, KAI, without the "umbrella" at the top): Imagine the clouds holding a daily "rain meeting" to decide whether they will sprinkle, pour or take the day off and disappear altogether.

露 (RO/tsuyu), meaning "dew," is a rainlike substance condensed on hard surfaces, including paved roads (路, RO, road). (Note the "legs," 足, walking down the road in 路.) Twenty-one-stroke 露 is utilized as a one-kanji abbreviation for "Russia," because RO is the first sound in the Japanese word for that nation (ロシア, Roshia), but the graphically simpler three-stroke katakana version of RO, ロ, is often used instead.

雪 (yuki, snow) is rain in a solid form that can be cleared away. Think of the bottom component (ヨ) as a rake for getting the job done. In the PRC, where 電 (electricity) has lost its rain component, 雪 retains it. 雪 is used to render the Chinese name for the soft drink Sprite: 雪碧 (snow/blue).

If you are a foreigner slogging through kanji-learning methods designed for Japanese children, perhaps today's rain-based characters will inspire you to look at kanji as the sum of their parts and get on the fast track, component-analysis approach to Japanese literacy.

1. 雨 (rain)+ ヨ (rake)= 雪
2. 雨+ 辰 (clam shell)= 震
3. 雨+ 並 (line up)= 霊
4. 雨+ 路(road)= 露
5. 雨+ 会(meet)= 雲
6. 雨+ 而 (beard)= 需
7. 雨+ 分 (divide)= 雰
8. 雨 + kite with tail= 電
9. 雨+ 田 (rice field)= 雷

a. atmosphere (FUN)
b. lightning/thunder (RAI)
c. shake (SHIN)
d. spirit (REI)
e. demand (JU)
f. snow (yuki)
g. cloud (kumo)
h. electricity (DEN)
i. dew (tsuyu/RO)

Answers:
1=f
2=c
3=d
4=i
5=g
6=e
7=a
8=h
9=b

View article…

TAIWAN, CHINA & JAPAN: Taiwan's Senkaku activists eye Chinese cash

Thursday, May 20, 2010

By MARTIN WILLIAMS, Kyodo News

TAIPEI — With political and financial patronage drying up at home, Taiwan-based activists are working on an international alliance to claim the Senkaku Islands for China.

The uninhabited islands, which lie between Taiwan and Okinawa, are claimed by Beijing, Taipei and Tokyo.

For the governments, the larger issues over the islets — known in Taiwan and China as the Diaoyutai — have been territorial control and exploiting oil and natural gas reserves.

For Taiwanese fishermen, however, the dispute has led to ongoing confrontations with Japanese patrol vessels and exclusion from what they claim to be ancestral fishing grounds.

A Taiwanese activist group, the Chinese Diaoyutai Defense Association, has responded to the impasse by merging a claim of Chinese sovereignty over the islands with advocacy for the fishing industry.

Drawn from a loose, decades-old coalition known as the Alliance for the Defense of Diaoyutai, the group was registered in 2008 after its application was rejected by the government of then President Chen Shui-bian the year before.

The group claims 100 members from around Taiwan and organizes activities in parks and university campuses every two to three months to promote its cause.

It hopes by the end of the year to travel again to the disputed waters on chartered vessels but may not be able to pull off such an event given its experience with government intervention in 2009.

Huang Hsi-lin, secretary general of the group, said he learned from that aborted campaign and will be more secretive in preparing expeditions.

Previous campaigns have seen shore landings, arrests, an activist vessel being rammed by a Japanese patrol ship and, in 1996, the death of an activist from Hong Kong.

This year, complications are already emerging.

On April 30, Taipei announced an agreement with Tokyo to strengthen ties in various sectors after a period of tension stemming from sovereignty issues, including the Senkaku dispute.

Notably, the agreement includes enhanced communications on maritime security.

Meanwhile, the Ma Ying-jeou administration is beginning to ask questions about the association's intentions this year, potentially threatening boat operators with impoundment and cancellation of licenses.

More seriously for the association, ennui among the general public and the disappearance of local sources of funding have forced activists to turn to businesspeople in China to fund their activism.

Huang declined to name companies, locations or businesses for fear they would suffer retribution from Chinese authorities, but he did say his group had approached them "reluctantly."

Skeptical observers who sense more ideology than pragmatism in this agenda may feel vindicated by deepening ties between this group and Diaoyutai activists in China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as overseas Chinese groups in the Americas and Europe.

Huang said the groups are working to build a formal alliance, though more talks are needed to integrate groups from outside Asia.

A conference of delegates from all locations set for Sept. 11 at the National Central Library in Taipei is expected to accelerate formation of an umbrella organization.

After that, the groups will look to June 17, 2011, the 40th anniversary of what Huang says was the day the United States granted sovereignty over the group of islets to Japan.

To mark the occasion, Huang envisages a flotilla of activists setting out from ports around the region and converging on the islands.

"We'd be beyond the control of the Taiwan authorities. Ma won't be able to do a thing if the boats are coming from everywhere, not just from Taiwan," he said.

The association is a marginal activist group, but it is linked to a wider network of Taiwanese organizations and individuals with more mainstream appeal and influence.

On March 27, in a statement released by the prounification Chinatide Association, the Chinese Diaoyutai Defense Association was named as a member of the Cross-Strait Peaceful Development Forum, a new gathering of organizations including leftist groups, Greater China nationalists, Chinese immigrant advocates and publishing companies that support unification.

Award-winning Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien was one of the keynote speakers at the founding ceremony for the forum, whose goals include abolition of the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. law that authorizes military assistance for Taiwan, and ending U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

But Huang was adamant his group represents the interests of fishermen first and would happily consider a deal with Tokyo that allows access for fishermen without invoking sovereignty.

"The thing is, we're not willing to tilt toward China; we have our own approach to matters," he said. "The problem is that Taiwan-Japan government relations have put the squeeze on us, the defenders of Diaoyutai, forcing us to look elsewhere for support."

Huang repeatedly complained of pressure from the Ma government, partly because it wants to improve relations with Tokyo, but also because of close ties with Japan among legislators on both sides of the political fence.

View article...

THE KOREAS: The Torpedo Attack: Will North Korea Be Punished?

The front half of a sunken South Korean naval ship is lifted from waters near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea at Baengnyeong Island Yonhap News Agency

Wednesday, May. 19, 2010

By Bill Powell

More than a month after the mysterious incident, the South Korean Defense Ministry will present what a diplomatic source called "credible and extensive" evidence that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo at and sunk the Cheonan, a South Korean naval vessel operating in Seoul's own territorial waters. Forty-six sailors died as result of the attack.

What happens after that announcement — which will present the evidence that was gathered for more than a month by a team of international investigators — is decidedly less clear.

The question squarely on the table now for Seoul and its allies in Washington and Tokyo — not to mention North Korea's patron in Beijing — is straightforward: What price should North Korea pay in response to what appears to have been an act of war and a clear violation of the armistice agreement that has kept a tenuous peace on the peninsula since 1953? (See rare pictures of North Korea.)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take up that question with her counterparts in China, Japan and then South Korea when she arrives on Friday for a visit to East Asia. Though South Korean President Lee Myung Bak has said that no option — military included — is off the table, analysts believe there is little chance of any retaliatory strike from Seoul. Even if Kim Jong Il and his generals in the North "fully understand who would be the ultimate loser" if a hot war on the peninsula suddenly broke out," as Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says, the potential cost of any escalation to the South remains too much to bear. So while there may be "genuine fury" amid the highest echelons of the South Korean government, as a Western diplomat said on Wednesday, Seoul also "knows well that it can't risk this getting out of hand. There is no appetite in South Korea for a war." (See how the world deals with North Korea's provocations.)

For the Obama Administration, the key issue going forward is whether the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the North (which started under the Bush Administration) are worth salvaging or whether the Cheonan attack renders them moot once and for all. (A State Department spokesman, with comical understatement, said on Tuesday that the North's "provocative actions" have "at times impeded progress on the six-party process.") Kim earlier this month visited Beijing for the first time since 2006, and according to China's official news agency, the Dear Leader said "the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will work with China to create favorable conditions for restarting six-party talks." Since even that statement stopped well short of saying that Kim would return to the table, both the Americans and the Chinese must know that the six-party obsession must, at minimum, be put aside for a good long while. Seoul, with full American support, diplomatic sources say, will now go to the U.N. Security Council seeking a range of intensified sanctions against Pyongyang. "We have enough evidence [to do so]," South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan said on Tuesday. (See the rise of Kim Jong Il.)

How Beijing reacts to that effort will be critically important, since China remains North Korea's de facto economic lifeline. China accounts for fully one-third of North Korea's total external trade, and in the wake of sanctions enacted a year ago after Pyongyang's second nuclear test, it is thus "even more central to any effective sanctions effort," says Marcus Noland, a fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington.

"A cutoff of critical Chinese oil shipments, much less a complete trade embargo, would bring the country to its knees."

See pictures of North Koreans at the polls.

See 10 things to do in Seoul.

Which is why it's unlikely to happen. Beijing to date has never evinced any serious interest in bringing the economic hammer down on Pyongyang. It values stability over anything else, and the death of 46 South Korean sailors is unlikely to change that view. It took China a month, in fact, to offer Seoul its condolences after the attack. Moreover, Kim no doubt pleaded his case about the Cheonan attack during the Dear Leader's recent visit to Beijing. From the North's perspective, it was a strike in retaliation for another naval clash in November 2009 in the West Sea, when an undetermined number of North Korean sailors were killed. Pyongyang's military doctrine, North Korea watchers in Seoul say, has always stressed retaliation for anything that smacks of defeat in an individual skirmish, and indeed there have been South Korean media reports since the Cheonan sinking that those military officers who pulled it off have been promoted. China, says Cheong Seong-chang, a fellow at the Sejong Institute, will weigh carefully how detailed and convincing the evidence Seoul presents before deciding what kind of sanctions it will be willing to go along with at the U.N.

Seoul's options are limited, given how paltry economic ties between the Koreas are. It may choose to shutter the Kaesong special economic zone just across the border in North Korea, where more than 100 South Korean companies, mainly in light industry like textiles, have factories employing about 40,000 North Koreans. (Though even that move would be unpopular with the South Korean employers, who use the factories to compete with inexpensive Chinese imports.) (See pictures of China on the wild side.)

That means the U.S. needs to decide how much heavy lifting it will do beyond backing new U.N. sanctions. Plausibly, Washington could once again add North Korea to the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. President Bush took Pyongyang off the list in 2008. But arguably the most effective measure Washington could take would be for the Treasury Department to again go after any international financial institution that handles North Korean money — whether it be trade finance or funds laundered by senior leaders in Pyongyang — by cutting off their access entirely to the U.S. It was precisely this form of a sanction a few years ago — which centered on a Macao-based bank called Banco Delta Asia — that infuriated the North Koreans. So much so, in fact, that some analysts believe it led to the North's first major act of nuclear defiance: its initial test in the autumn of 2006. Cheong of the Sejong Institute believes that if the U.S. again seeks tough, targeted financial sanctions, the result will probably be the same: Pyongyang's third nuclear test.

He may be right. Such is the nature of trying to coerce Kim Jong Il into something remotely resembling acceptable behavior. Unless China decides that that day must come, it probably won't.

— With reporting by Stephen Kim / Seoul

View article…

N. KOREA: Laura Ling tells Oprah she confessed to N. Korean captors

This was the scene last August when Laura Ling, left, reunited with her mother, Mary, husband Iain Clayton and sister Lisa following her release from nearly five months in captivity in North Korea.  By Jae C. Hong, AP

By Brooke Donald, Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — An American journalist who was imprisoned in North Korea for months after briefly crossing into the reclusive country while reporting on the sex trade said she told interrogators in a ploy for mercy that she was trying to overthrow the government.

In her first televised interview since her August release, Laura Ling said on The Oprah Winfrey Show that aired Tuesday that she was told the worst could happen if she didn't confess.

Ling said she drew suspicion because she worked for San Francisco-based Current TV, a media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

"I knew that that was the confession they wanted to hear and I was told if you confess there may be forgiveness and if you're not frank, if you don't confess, then the worst could happen," Ling said.

"It was the most difficult decision to have to do that. I didn't know if I was sealing my fate," she said. "But I just had to trust that this was the right thing to do."

Ling and journalist Euna Lee, both of Los Angeles, were captured in March 2009. They acknowledge they briefly crossed into North Korea from China while reporting about North Korean women who were forced into the sex trade or arranged marriages when they defected to China.

They said they were seized by North Korean soldiers after they had already returned to Chinese soil.

After being left alone for a few minutes following their arrest, they managed to delete digital photos from their camera, damage video and eat their notes to protect sources. They then underwent separate interrogations aimed at learning why they were in the country.

They initially told the guards they were students but later confessed to being journalists for fear that lying would get them in more trouble. They were told North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would forgive them, as he was a compassionate man.

They spent the first few days of their captivity in a five-by-six foot jail cell. Ling was visited by a doctor to inspect wounds she received while trying to evade capture.

"There were no bars so you couldn't see out. And if they closed those slats, it just went completely dark," Ling said.

The women were moved to a Pyongyang guesthouse soon after, where Ling said conditions improved, but there were no showers and the power and water went out several times a day.

"I developed a system to wash where they would allow me to heat a kettle of water," she said. "I would mix it with some cold water and then I would scrub down and just splash it on me."

A couple months into their detainment, the women were convicted of illegal entry and "hostile acts" and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

Ling said she was petrified and tried to prepare herself for a long sentence, "but once I heard those words '12 years' come from the judge I could barely stand up right."

She said she spiraled into a deep depression, refused her meals and huddled in a dark corner of her room. She said she sought strength by thinking about other innocent people imprisoned.

"If these people are undergoing this then I can try to muster up the strength to get through it," she said.

Ling also said she was angry with herself and would slap and hit herself as punishment for putting her family through the ordeal. She thought she might be pregnant when she was captured then was crushed to learn she wasn't.

"I thought, I will never be able to have a family with my husband again," said Ling, who is now pregnant and due in June.

While detained, Ling was interrogated daily about her work, travels and family. She could occasionally watch television in the guards' quarters and received letters from her family. She was separated from Lee for all but six days of their five months of captivity.

The women were pardoned in early August after a landmark trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.

They are among four Americans detained by North Korea in less than a year for illegal entry.

Activist Robert Park of Arizona was expelled some 40 days after crossing into North Korea last Christmas. Aijalon Mahli Gomes of Boston remains imprisoned after being arrested Jan. 25 in North Korea. It's unclear why Gomes, who had been teaching in South Korea, crossed into the North.

Tensions between North and South are running high amid a dispute over joint economic projects and the mysterious March sinking of a South Korean warship and death of 46 sailors near the nation's western sea border.

Meanwhile, international negotiations aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons remain stalled. The United States is a participant in those talks.

Ling appeared on Winfrey's show with her sister, journalist Lisa Ling, who is a correspondent for the program. The women promoted their new book, Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home.

In the book, Lisa Ling describes a phone conversation she had with Gore the day she learned her sister had been captured. He warned her not to do or say anything that might inflame the North Koreans.

"The next forty-eight hours are crucial," he urged. "We're not dealing with a normal government, we have to be very, very careful."

Contributing: Associated Press Writer Caryn Rousseau in Chicago contributed to this report.

View article...

CHINA: Sign Language: Happy zapping

Happy zapping

Location: Shenzhen Airport, China

Spotted by: Navjot Singh

JAPAN: IMF Urges Japan To Start Fiscal Reform Next Year

MAY 19, 2010, 8:40 A.M. ET

BY TAKASHI NAKAMICHI

TOKYO --The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday urged Japan's government to start fiscal rehabilitation from the next fiscal year beginning in April 2011, possibly by raising the nation's 5% consumption tax rate.

"With global scrutiny of public finances increasing, the need for early and credible fiscal adjustments has become critical," said James Gordon, senior advisor in the fund's Asia and Pacific Department.

"In our view, fiscal adjustment should start in (fiscal) 2011, beginning with a gradual increase in consumption tax to ...

View article...

CHINA: Chinese girls freed from cellar in Wuhan after year-long imprisonment

Published: 12:33PM BST 19 May 2010

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

The girls, aged 16 and 19, were discovered last Friday, naked and cuffed at the feet, in a secret chamber built underneath a home in the capital of Hubei province.

The 19-year-old, whose family home was just 600 feet from the prison, went missing in July last year, according to Beijing News.

Neither victim was named and no further details about their condition, or any abuse they may have suffered, were released.

The man suspected of kidnapping them was named as 39-year-old Zeng Xiangbao. He had already been detained by police a week before the discovery of the girls on an unrelated rape charge, according to the authorities.

The police said that if they had not discovered the cellar, the two girls could have starved to death after Mr Zeng's detention.

The girls were discovered after a man found a piece of paper in the street with their plea for help scrawled upon it, along with a phone number and a map.

The police said the two girls had tried to smuggle out similar notes on a number of occasions, writing them on the packaging of the instant noodles that they were fed by their captor.

The authorities said the case was being investigated. No charges have yet been filed against Mr Zeng.

View article...

CHINA: State media: 13 hurt in latest China knife attack at college

BEIJING (AP) — At least five men armed with knives burst into the dormitory of a vocational college Wednesday and slashed nine students, one of them seriously, sparking new fears in a country on edge over a series of shocking rampages, many of them at schools.

Four students had been wounded in an earlier confrontation between the two groups, bringing the total injured to 13.

The pre-dawn attack took place in Haikou, the capital of the southern island province of Hainan, when five or six men burst into a dormitory at the Hainan Institute of Science and Technology and slashed the students, the China News Service reported.

It said eight were wounded slightly, while one's hand was cut off.

Two students remained in hospital with non-life threatening wounds, the reports said.

Because it was a vocational college, the students would have been much older than the children targeted in a string of attacks at schools across China in the last two months.

The reports said the violence began with a confrontation late Tuesday between some of the college's students eating at a food stall outside the school and men from the surrounding villages. Such schools usually attract students in their late teens and early twenties.

Four of the students were attacked with knives and police were called, but left after questioning students, the reports said. Villagers then called for reinforcements and attacked the school at about 2:30 a.m. (1830 GMT), the reports said.

A spokesman for the Hainan provincial government confirmed the report but said he had no additional information. The official Xinhua News Agency put the number of attackers at more than 10 and said they first assaulted a guard and disabled security cameras before rushing into two dormitories where lights remained on and hacking away apparently at random.

The attack follows five separate assaults by lone assailants against schoolchildren as young as three in the last two months that have left 17 dead and more than 50 wounded, including some adults.

The violence has resulted in a boost of security at schools across China, with nervous parents accompanying students to school and police and security guards posted at entrances.

While revenge was the apparent motive in the latest attack, previous rampages have involved apparently deranged people seeking to vent their rage on innocent victims with whom they had little or no connection.

Sociologists say those attacks reflect a failure to diagnose and treat mental illness, along with anger and frustration among people who feel victimized by China's high-stress, fast-changing society. Experts say the frequency of the attacks and choice of schoolchildren as the main victims suggest a copycat element.

In a similar incident, a cleaver-wielding man killed one woman and wounded five at a market in the southern province of Guangdong on Sunday before jumping to his death.

While the man appeared to have deliberately targeted women, it was not immediately clear what triggered the attack.

View USA Today article... Wed 5/19/2010 3:16 AM

View The Telegraph article... Wed 5/19/2010 5:32 AM

THE KOREAS: Today in Korean history

May 19

1442 -- King Sejong of Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) announces that his commissioned scholars have invented a rain gauge. The device, which measured the amount of rainfall using a rectangular vessel, was distributed across the country to help farmers forecast how much rain would fall in certain periods. The gauge is believed to be the world's first; the first pluviometer in the West was created in 1639 by Italian hydrologist Benedetto Castelli.

1879 -- The Joseon Dynasty opens the port of Wonsan to foreign countries for trade. The city later became part of southeastern North Korea.

1957 -- South Korea holds the Miss Korea pageant, its first beauty contest ever, in Seoul. The annual competition has since been the target of fierce criticism from a number of civic groups and women's organizations that have claimed it encourages an appearance-first mindset and degrades women by subjecting them to sexual exploitation.

1976 -- South Korea forms diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea.

1992 -- Kim Young-sam is chosen as the then ruling Democratic Liberal Party's presidential candidate for the December elections. Kim won the election and took office in February 1993 for a five-year term.

1997 -- The head of the then opposition National Congress for New Politics, Kim Dae-jung, is named as the party's candidate for the presidential election in December. Kim, who assumed the presidency in February 1998, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea.

2001 -- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designates Korea's traditional royal ritual honoring deceased kings and queens as a world cultural heritage. The ritual's music was also named a heritage.

2003 -- Chung Mong-hun, chairman of Hyundai Asan, is summoned by prosecutors for questioning over his alleged involvement in illicit payments to North Korea. The prosecution said Hyundai provided millions of dollars to the North before its leader agreed to hold a summit meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in June 2000.
   In return for the secret payment, Hyundai received permits to promote business projects in the North, prosecutors said. Chung committed suicide in August of that year.

View article…

THE KOREAS: S Korea minister says Pyongyang sank warship

Published: May 19 2010 08:11 | Last updated: May 19 2010 08:11

By Christian Oliver in Seoul

South Korea’s foreign minister on Wednesday blamed North Korea for torpedoing one of its warships, which sank on March 26 with the loss of 46 lives, a day before Seoul was due to make its formal response to the incident which has put a serious strain on relations.

The accusation by Yu Myung-hwan suggested that an official accusation from Seoul would be announced on Thursday, which would open the way for what the government vowed would be a “stern response”.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

US aims to raise pressure on N Korea - May-19

Seoul threatens to block N Korea’s TV soccer - May-12

Tensions take Koreans back to dark days - Apr-22

In depth: North Korea - Dec-08

China and N Korea in pledge on nuclear talks - May-07

Kim’s visit shows limits of Chinese influence - May-07

The military had blamed North Korea involvement from the outset, but the South Korean president demanded a painstaking international investigation to prevent an unnecessary conflagration.

Washington is increasingly concerned that tensions on the peninsula could spiral out of control. Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, will visit Seoul next week following a trip to Beijing, in which she is expected to discuss the crisis.

The foreign minister on Wednesday said it was “obvious” that North Korea was responsible. Investigators told South Korean media that they had found parts of a torpedo propeller, a serial number and explosives of a type that suggested North Korean involvement.

Despite this conclusion, South Korea has limited options in seeking retaliation. Seoul has suggested referring the case to the United Nations security council but there is little room for extra sanctions against the reclusive dictatorship.

China has also traditionally turned a blind eye to sanctions, fearing that a failed state on its border could trigger a tide of refugees and instability in a million-man army that controls crude nuclear warheads.

South Korea has vowed to sever some economic ties with the North but these have been largely insignificant in recent years.

Last week, it threatened to block broadcasts of World Cup matches to Pyongyang, as the North Korean team prepares to make their first appearance in the tournament since 1966.

Some officials have suggested stiffening rules of engagement in cases where the two Koreas could come into conflict, for example when North Korean ships cross the disputed maritime border.

View Financial Times article...

MORE ARTICLES ON THIS TOPIC TODAY:

• South Korea minister says it’s ‘obvious’ north was behind deadly ship sinking Wed 5/19/2010 3:45 AM View The Globe & Mail article...
• South Korea to Blame North Wed 5/19/2010 4:04 AM View Wall Street Journal article...

 

 

N. KOREA: Held Captive for 140 Days: Lisa Ling's Sister Breaks Her Silence

Their capture sparked an international firestorm. Now, after 140 days in a North Korean prison, reporter Laura Ling breaks her silence.

View articles…

S. KOREA: Top headlines in major S. Korean newspapers

SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- The following are the top headlines in major South Korean newspapers on May 17.

Korean-language dailies
-- Welfare to be major topic of June 2 local elections (Kyunghyang Shinmun)
-- N. Korean ships cross NLL twice (Kookmin Daily)
-- N. Korea provokes again, threatens S. Korea to test reaction (Donga llbo)
-- N. Korean vessels cross NLL twice in first since Cheonan incident, retreats after S. Korean Navy's warning shots (Segye Times)
-- N. Korea's 'intentional provocation,' S. Korea's 'prepared response' (Seoul Shinmun)
-- Wen Jiabao rejects Kim Jong-il's request for aid (JoongAng Ilbo)
-- N. Korean ships cross NLL, S. Korean Navy fires warning shots (Chosun Ilbo)
-- Pres. Lee orders to suspend projects related to N. Korea using gov't budget (Hankyoreh)
-- Korea-U.S. agree on 3 restrictive measures on N. Korea (Hankook Ilbo)
-- Samsung-Sony to begin third round of collaboration: Lee, Stringer to meet on 24th in Seoul (Maeil Business Newspaper)
-- 1 bln people of 'black diamond' call out to Korea: Korea boom in new emerging African market (Korea Economic Daily)

English-language dailies
-- Beijing's rebuff made Kim cut China trip short (JoongAng Daily)
-- Seoul to name N. Korea as ship attacker (Korea Herald)
-- Lee directs 3 tln won rise in arms buying (Korea Times)

View article…

JAPAN & CHINA: Nuclear row sours Japanese ties with China

Published: May 17 2010 18:17 | Last updated: May 17 2010 18:17

By Mure Dickie and Kathrin Hille in Beijing

A push by Japan’s ruling Democratic party to forge closer ties with China has failed to prevent rising diplomatic friction between the two Asian powers over nuclear disarmament and naval operations in the seas that divide them.

In a strikingly direct personal criticism, China at the weekend denounced Katsuya Okada, Japan’s foreign minister, for making “irresponsible” remarks about Beijing’s nuclear deterrent policy during a meeting with Yang Jiechi, his Chinese counterpart.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Beijing executes Japanese drug-smuggler - Apr-06

Japanese rail chief hits at Beijing - Apr-06

China lures Japanese investments - Mar-21

Gideon Rachman: Japan edges from America towards China - Mar-08

Japan calm as treasured status slips away - Feb-22

Tokyo woos China with imperial indulgence - Dec-13

The same meeting also involved a robust exchange of views on a incidents involving vessels of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy and Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force that have prompted diplomatic complaints from both sides.

While far from marking a return to the political chill that enveloped Sino-Japanese ties for much of the past decade, the frictions highlight the difficulties facing efforts by the DPJ, which swept to power in Japan in last year’s general election, to establish a more constructive relationship with its most important near neighbour.

Yukio Hatoyama, the Japanese prime minister, has pledged to work to build an “East Asian community” with China and other nations in the region, although Beijing’s response to the initiative has been unenthusiastic.

Frictions with Beijing could ease concerns among some in Washington that Japan’s 50-year-old alliance with the US might be a casualty of DPJ efforts to snuggle up to the region’s new rising power.

Mr Okada has repeatedly dismissed such talk, telling the Financial Times last month that China's growing power made it essential to “further strengthen” the alliance.

But Mr Okada’s call for China to join in international moves toward nuclear disarmament could cast a shadow on a planned visit to Tokyo by Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, after a three-way summit with South Korea this month.

China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that Mr Okada had accused Beijing of failing to fulfil its commitment to nuclear disarmament but Mr Yang had rebutted his “irresponsible remarks on the spot”.

An insider said the exchange on the topic was “pretty severe”, with Mr Yang questioning Japan’s right to challenge it on the topic given Tokyo’s dependence on the huge US nuclear “umbrella” for its own security.

The strength of Mr Yang’s reaction might reflect anxiety in the Chinese government that US and Russian high-profile willingness to reduce their nuclear arsenals could subject it to pressure that would undermine its ability to maintain a deterrent.

Nuclear arms experts believe that Beijing will not feel safe enough to start considering cutting its own strategic forces until the US and Russia have cut their arsenal to 500 warheads or less. China also feels that its nuclear strategy is being undermined by missile defence systems under development.

View article...

HONG KONG: World's Sexiest Hotel Pools

by Ondine Cohane

INTERCONTINENTAL HONG KONG

Where: Hong Kong

The crowd: International execs soaking away their jet lag; Asian beauties in town from Taipei and Shanghai for a little trendy shopping

How's the water? Three pools, each a different temperature, line this second-floor terrace overlooking the edge of Hong Kong's famous harbor. Take a dip at sunset to discover the best seats in town to soak in the cityscape. The pools' glass walls magnify the effect that you're floating in the harbor itself. A recent renovation has brought new cabanas for spa treatments and a teak-decked dining pavilion surrounded by lily ponds. If you can afford to seriously splurge, book the presidential suite, which has its own, private 340-square-foot rooftop pool and Jacuzzi.

The poolside tipple: Johnnie Walker Blue with one ice cube

The hotel: In addition to the views, the InterCon is known for world-class service and big guest rooms with big LCD TVs, iPod docking stations, and sunken tubs. Anglophiles will adore afternoon tea, while new agers go for the free tai chi and yoga.

InterContinental Hong Kong
Tel: 852 2721 1211
Doubles from $340

INTERESTED IN THIS DESTINATION?

See all our expert advice and travel recommendations for:

• Hong Kong

View article…

CHINA: China suffers new school killings

Page last updated at 04:13 GMT, Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Seven children have been hacked to death in north-western China in the latest in a series of violent attacks on schools, state media report.

At least 20 others were injured after the attack in Hanzhong city in Shaanxi province, Xinhua news agency reported, citing local authorities.

China has been shaken by a spate of attacks on schools in recent weeks.

In March, a man stabbed to death eight pupils at a school in Fujian province, and several similar attacks followed.

THIS YEAR'S ATTACKS

12 May: Seven children killed and 20 hurt in Hanzhong, Shaanxi province

30 April: Five children hurt in hammer attack in Weifang, Shandong

29 April: Three adults and 28 children injured in Taixing, Jiangsu

28 April: At least 15 children and one teacher injured in Leizhou, Guangdong

24 March: Eight children killed in Nanping, Fujian

A doctor was convicted of the Fujian attack and executed.

But in the space of a week in late April, three more attacks in different parts of China left dozens of children injured.

Motives for the attacks are not known, although officials have speculated that the incidents in late April were likely to be copycat attacks.

Hanzhong city official Liu Xiaoming told the Associated Press news agency that the man who carried out the killings in Hanzhong had killed himself afterwards. This has not been independently confirmed.

Last month, the education ministry ordered all schools to upgrade their security facilities, teach students about safety and ensure that young children were escorted home.

But correspondents say such measures are expensive and their effectiveness is unproven.

View article...

JAPAN: Man arrested for threatening to kill Japan's Princess Aiko

(L-R) Crown Prince Naruhito, Princess Aiko and Princess Masako

Posted: 12 May 2010 0026 hrs

By Channel NewsAsia's Japan Bureau Chief Michiyo Ishida

TOKYO : A 26-year-old unemployed man in Japan has been arrested for threatening to kill Princess Aiko - the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako.

Kengo Inami had posted a message on a popular internet forum, threatening to kill the princess with a hammer.

He is reported to have told investigators that he enjoyed the reactions of those who accessed the forum.

The incident comes at a time when the princess is making headlines of her own.

The daughter of Japan's crown prince and princess is still missing classes, two months after she stopped going to school because of bullying.

The shy eight-year-old attends Gakushuin Primary in Tokyo.

It was in March that the Imperial Household Agency held an unprecedented news conference saying that Princess Aiko cannot attend classes regularly due to worries and stomach pains. It's believed to be due to some aggressive boys in her school.

Princess Aiko has entered third grade, with the start of the new academic year in April.

According to the Imperial Household, she has missed some classes, as she's not able to attend a full day of school.

Since the term began, she has also stayed away from school for three days because of a cold.

"I think there is basically no problem with Princess Aiko. She is just a student of an elementary school. Sometimes we don't want to go to school for a period of time. It's quite natural especially if something is going on in the classroom," said Daisaburo Hashizume, Professor of Sociology at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Professor Hashizume, who has written about the imperial family, said the situation has been made worse by media reports.

And even though Gakushuin is a private school, founded to educate children of aristocrats, it is now open to all.

"She has a special position in the royalty. Just imagine when you're born a member of the royal family and attend regular elementary school. The family itself is a very unique one," said Professor Hashizume.

The birth of Prince Hisahito in 2006 to Princess Aiko's uncle, took some pressure off her family.

The baby boy is now third in line to the throne.

Before that, the government had deliberated changing the Imperial Household Law to allow women to ascend to the throne.

The debate generated huge public interest, and some critics believe the issue could be raised again in the future.

That could add more pressure on the princess and her mother Masako, who is still recovering from what's been called an adjustment disorder. - CNA /ls

View article…

Historical Overview of Japan: Prehistoric Japan

Gain a deeper understanding of Japan today by learning about its historical foundation.

“Japanese History Part I” Discover Japan’s prehistoric origins, the introduction of writing and Buddhism in ancient history, the development of its own distinctive culture in classical times, the military turbulence of the middle ages, and the social struggles of the feudal period.