Tokyo is preparing to promote Japan’s position regarding its territorial dispute with Russia, as well as with other Pacific nations, by opening a new government agency.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
RUSSIA braces for Japan ‘propaganda’ as territorial disputes flare
Tokyo is preparing to promote Japan’s position regarding its territorial dispute with Russia, as well as with other Pacific nations, by opening a new government agency.
CHINA: The Myth of Xi Jinping’s “New” Leadership
As China prepares to finalize the leadership transition that began last November and will conclude in March, there is no shortage of proposals for world leaders to engage China’s new leader Xi Jinping as the foundation for the future of relations with China. The idea is to get in “on the ground floor” as Xi takes over from Chinese President Hu Jintao, who will give up his last title to Xi at the National People’s Congress in March. The problem, however, is that opening was five years ago when Xi made the Politburo Standing Committee—if not before, when he was Fujian and later Shanghai Party Secretary and clearly destined for greater things. If foreign governments and particularly the United States want to develop strong personal relationships, then they have to start before China’s leaders achieve positions where every interaction becomes political. Otherwise, their energy is better spent elsewhere.
When observers call Xi a “leader-in-waiting,” they are forgetting that China is guided by the collective decision making in the Politburo Standing Committee. Xi’s vice presidency is one of those fictional protocol assignments that makes it easier for China to interact with foreign governments. The position, however, is worth less than even the U.S. vice presidency, which John Adams derided as being “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
Even if Xi Jinping only took over the party reins at the 18th Party Congress last November, he already was an important Chinese leader at the center of power. President of the Central Party School, a position Xi held from 2007 to 2012, is the kind of title that sounds unimportant and mostly administrative. But the Central Party School post is important for at least three reasons.
First, almost every rising star in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will pass through the Central Party School for mid-career or senior executive education. Like the China Youth League, where Hu Jintao built a factional base, running the school allows for talent spotting for and relationship building with the officials who can support a leader through loyal policy execution as he moves up the greasy pole of Chinese politics.
Second, few civilian positions allow substantial engagement with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), not limited by the jurisdiction of a local defense mobilization committee or a garrison party committee. The Central Military Commission is one place. The Central Party School is another, because it plays an important role in setting ideology across the CCP. And the PLA has 1.8 million party members.
Third and most importantly, the Central Party School presidency placed Xi Jinping on the Politburo Standing Committee and signaled that his star was on the rise. From 2002 to 2012, Hu Jintao may have been first among equals, but he had difficulty controlling the Politburo Standing Committee, giving relative autonomy to the other members. Not only would this situation give Xi more flexibility to build the political support to replace Hu—many aspiring deputies ranging from Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao to Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang have been axed because they accumulated power outside the control of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping—but also would inject him into the center of deliberations requiring the standing committee’s collective approval.
When observers call Xi a “leader-in-waiting,” they are forgetting that China is guided by the collective decision making in the Politburo Standing Committee. Xi’s vice presidency is one of those fictional protocol assignments that makes it easier for China to interact with foreign governments. The position, however, is worth less than even the U.S. vice presidency, which John Adams derided as being “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
Even if Xi Jinping only took over the party reins at the 18th Party Congress last November, he already was an important Chinese leader at the center of power. President of the Central Party School, a position Xi held from 2007 to 2012, is the kind of title that sounds unimportant and mostly administrative. But the Central Party School post is important for at least three reasons.
First, almost every rising star in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will pass through the Central Party School for mid-career or senior executive education. Like the China Youth League, where Hu Jintao built a factional base, running the school allows for talent spotting for and relationship building with the officials who can support a leader through loyal policy execution as he moves up the greasy pole of Chinese politics.
Second, few civilian positions allow substantial engagement with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), not limited by the jurisdiction of a local defense mobilization committee or a garrison party committee. The Central Military Commission is one place. The Central Party School is another, because it plays an important role in setting ideology across the CCP. And the PLA has 1.8 million party members.
Third and most importantly, the Central Party School presidency placed Xi Jinping on the Politburo Standing Committee and signaled that his star was on the rise. From 2002 to 2012, Hu Jintao may have been first among equals, but he had difficulty controlling the Politburo Standing Committee, giving relative autonomy to the other members. Not only would this situation give Xi more flexibility to build the political support to replace Hu—many aspiring deputies ranging from Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao to Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang have been axed because they accumulated power outside the control of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping—but also would inject him into the center of deliberations requiring the standing committee’s collective approval.
VIDEO: 'Multiple' N Korea tests warning
South Korea's outgoing leader, Lee Myung-bak, has warned that North Korea could be planning more than one nuclear test, even as the US spoke of consequences if it went ahead.
CHINA, JAPAN on the brink
Chinese warships have pointed missile radars at Japanese military targets, Japan says, as stand-off escalates.
CHINA: A Landmark Domestic-Violence Case in China
In a Beijing court last weekend, an American named Kim Lee made Chinese legal history. She was granted a divorce on grounds of domestic violence, an issue widely overlooked in China, and the court issued a three-month restraining order against her husband that the state media described as unprecedented. Her ex-husband is China’s most famous English teacher, Li Yang, whom I wrote about five years ago, when the couple was touring the country, teaching to crowds of thousands.
The judgment was a victory not only for Kim Lee and her three daughters, but also for advocates of the rule of law on behalf of China’s often-silenced victims of domestic violence. “All of society was paying attention,” Guo Jianmei, a prominent lawyer told the reporter Didi Kirsten Tatlow, after the ruling. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
...read more
NORTH KOREA nuclear test would face "firm" U.N. action: South Korea
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is united on North Korea's nuclear arms program and will undoubtedly approve tough measures against Pyongyang if it carries out a new atomic test as expected, South Korean U.N. Ambassador Kim Sook said on Monday.
RUSSIA: G8 summit to follow Olympics in Russian resort of Sochi
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will host world leaders at next year's G8 summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi a few months after holding the Winter Olympics there, President Vladimir Putin said in a decree on Monday.
CHINA: In rare move, China jails 10 for holding petitioners
BEIJING (Reuters) - A court in Beijing has sentenced 10 people to up to two years in jail for illegally detaining petitioners from another city, state media reported on Tuesday, in a rare case of the judiciary taking on the shadowy men who operate on the margins of the law.
JAPAN protests to CHINA after radar pointed at vessel
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Chinese navy vessel aimed a type of radar normally used to aim weapons at a target at a Japanese navy ship in the East China Sea, prompting Japan to protest, Japan's defense minister said on Tuesday, an action that could complicate efforts to cool tension in a territorial row between the rivals.
NORTH KOREA threatens "stronger" measures than nuclear test
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea stepped up its bellicose rhetoric on Tuesday, threatening to go beyond carrying out a promised third nuclear test in response to what it believes are "hostile" sanctions imposed after a December rocket launch.
NORTH KOREA: U.N. urged to probe North Korean leaders' role in abuses
GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea's leaders are likely to be the target of a U.N. investigation into their personal responsibility for rapes, torture, executions, arbitrary arrests and abductions, following an expert report published on Tuesday.
RUSSIA: Liberal Russian governor faces ouster as Putin tightens grip
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's attempts to reassert his grip on Russia after months of protests look likely to force the removal of one of the few liberal leaders outside Moscow.
JAPAN protests to CHINA after radar pointed at vessel
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Chinese navy vessel aimed a type of radar normally used to aim weapons at a target at a Japanese navy ship in the East China Sea, prompting Japan to protest, Japan's defense minister said on Tuesday, an action that could complicate efforts to cool tension in a territorial row between the rivals.
CHINA and JAPAN's Wikipedia War - By Pete Hunt
How a showdown over a group of remote islands in the East China Sea is heating up online.
CHINA's wasted food could feed 200 million people for a year, study finds
Shocking statistics on the amount of food wasted in China have sparked a nationwide movement to eat more and order less. While the study by researchers at China Agricultural University was released in April of last year, it has received widespread attention in the past two weeks on the heels of the Party's new austerity campaign.
CHINESE women spend thousands of yuan to rent boyfriends for Spring Festival
As millions of young Chinese return home to a parental inquisition on their job prospects and plans to settle down, some women have taken to renting fake boyfriends to put their families at ease and spend the new year in peace.
CHINA Photos: The Long Journey Home
- Reuters
Why CHINA Is Involved in Myanmar Fighting
China steps in to host Myanmar peace talks between Kachin rebels and the government. The WSJ's Patrick McDowell tells us why China wants the two sides to stop fighting.
NORTH KOREA's 'imminent' test
North Korea's plans for a new nuclear test, like most things that happen inside the reclusive state, are shrouded in mystery. But that's not stopping experts from making guesses about what's going on.
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