TAIWAN & CHINA: U.S. Arms Sales To Taiwan Threaten China Relations

Jan 25, 2010 7:40 pm US/Pacific

U.S. Arms Sales To Taiwan Threaten China Relations

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Obama administration has notified Congress that it has decided to sell weapons to Taiwan, a move expected to worsen already tense ties between China and the United States, senior congressional aides said Monday.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province and will vehemently object to the arms package, which is likely to include UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles and material related to Taiwan's defense communications network.

The aides said the administration has been consulting with Congress about Taiwan's defense needs ahead of a formal announcement of the sale. Meetings began last week and are continuing this week.

The aides, who have direct knowledge of the meetings, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of arms sales to Taiwan and because the notification is not yet official.

The package appears to dodge a thorny issue: The aides say the F-16 fighter jets that Taiwan covets are not likely to be included.

The sale would satisfy parts of an $11 billion arms package originally pledged to the self-governing island by former President George W. Bush in 2001. That package has been provided in stages because of political and budgetary considerations in Taiwan and the United States. The aides say it is unclear when an official announcement will come but that it could be soon.

The sale has been widely expected, and Beijing has already warned of a disruption in ties with Washington.

Taiwan is the most sensitive matter in U.S.-China relations, with the potential to plunge into conflict two powers increasingly linked in security and economic issues. Many in Washington expect that a temporary break in military ties is inevitable.

China vows to eventually bring Taiwan under its control and aims more than 1,000 ballistic missiles at the island; the U.S. government, on the other hand, is bound by law to ensure the island is able to respond to Chinese threats.

The arms sale package will test the Obama administration's China policy, which U.S. officials say is meant to improve trust between the countries, so that the inevitable disagreements over Taiwan or Tibet don't reverse efforts to cooperate on nuclear standoffs in Iran and North Korea, and attempts to deal with economic and climate change issues.

It was only in November that President Barack Obama met with Chinese leaders in an attempt to secure cooperation on global hotspots. Since then, tensions have spiked, with the United States criticizing Chinese Internet freedom and China worrying over a possible meeting next month between Obama and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader China accuses of pushing for independence.

The United States also faults China's double digit annual percentage increases in defense spending. Washington has said that China's massive defense spending would spur continued U.S. arms sales to Taiwan to maintain a military balance in the potentially dangerous Taiwan Strait.

In 2008, China suspended most military dialogue with Washington after the Bush administration approved a $6.5 billion arms package to Taiwan that included guided missiles and attack helicopters.

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JAPAN: New Scandal Hits Japan's Ruling Party

Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010

By Coco Masters / Tokyo

Japan's ruling Democratic Party Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa is surrounded by reporters after attending the party's annual convention in Tokyo on Jan. 16, 2010 Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

After masterminding the historic electoral victory of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) last year, the party's co-founder and Secretary General, Ichiro Ozawa, has once again found himself in the national spotlight. But rather than basking in the glory of pulling off a successful election, Japan's so-called Shadow Shogun finds himself under investigation by the powerful Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of wrongdoing in a controversial land purchase.

Just days into the spring Diet session, Ozawa, probably the DPJ's most powerful politician, casts a shadow not only over Diet deliberations but also the competency of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration.

While scandals come and go in Japan, some observers wonder if the young government that swept the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) out of more than five decades of single-party rule is resilient enough to ride this storm, with the Upper House elections slated for July. (See pictures of Japan's relationship with the world.)

"Obviously, it's not good for the DPJ. They can't say that they're different from the old crooks," says Robert Dujarric, director of Temple University's Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies.

Business as usual is not what the public expects from an underdog party that just won the people's mandate on a platform of regime change. Dujarric, however, says that Ozawa is widely understood to be an "old-fashioned" politician. "If you want Mr. Clean, you're not going to date Ozawa," he says. "Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. That's his weakness."

Ozawa has had many run-ins with the Prosecutors Office over the course of his career, as have many of Japan's political élite. Last May, then DPJ president Ozawa stepped down from that post following the arrest of his top aide, Takanori Okubo, who is now on trial for accounting irregularities and illegal donations from a large construction company that allegedly wanted to win contracts in areas where Ozawa has political influence. Ozawa bowed to cries for his resignation from within the party just months before August's Lower House elections. That move, however, did not satisfy the prosecutors, an influential group of Japanese officials with the power to investigate any criminal offense. Takao Toshikawa, editor of political newsletter Tokyo Insideline, says that

Ozawa and his mentors have been fighting various battles with the office since the late 1970s. "At this moment, the Prosecutors Office and Ozawa are fighting the final war," says Toshikawa.

(See pictures of Japan in the 1980s and today.)

The office now wants to know to what extent Ozawa is mired in the tangled path of how a sum of 400 million yen ($4.4 million) came to be used to buy residential land in western Tokyo in October 2004 to build housing for Ozawa's aides. Rikuzankai, Ozawa's funds-management body, failed to properly report the sum and could be in violation of Japan's Political Fund Control Law for misreporting the funds, not logging the land purchase properly and concealing an illegal donation from the construction company. Ozawa has apologized to the Japanese people for any "misunderstanding" in misreporting the funds, saying there was no criminal intent. It is reported that Ozawa will submit to prosecutors' questioning this weekend and that he plans to tell them he had personally given at least 600 million yen ($6.6 million) to finance the purchase in question. So far, prosecutors have arrested three aides linked to Ozawa, including Okubo. Another is Tomohiro Ishikawa, a former secretary to Ozawa who is now a Diet member representing Hokkaido's 11th District. (See a TIME interview with Ichiro Ozawa.)

Some observers, including Ozawa himself, suggest that the Public Prosecutors Office could be flexing its muscle in a partisan show of force, as the office has long been controlled by the LDP. But that doesn't diminish the fact that similar investigations have occurred in the past.

Says Dujarric: "Prosecutors, from time to time, like to indict someone powerful. It was done in the era of LDP, and now Ozawa is getting a visit." Toshikawa says it's possible that a special investigation team will search Ozawa's home in early February. And depending on what they find, he says, it might lead to Ozawa's arrest.

However it unfolds, the imbroglio doesn't bode well for the DPJ — or for Hatoyama. Still building public confidence in his fifth month in office, Hatoyama is in the throes of trying to pass the second supplementary budget for the current year by the end of January, and the 2010 budget by the end of March.

"[Ozawa's] situation highlights Hatoyama's judgment," says Dujarric. "A lot of criticism has said that he's too indecisive. At first he supported Ozawa and then vaguely backtracked. That doesn't make Hatoyama look good."

After initially seeming to come out in public support of Ozawa earlier this month, Hatoyama has since taken more of a wait-and-see stance. It's not helping his falling approval ratings, which, at 41.5%, are now lower than his disapproval rate of 44.1%, according to a recent Kyodo News poll. Last month, news broke that contributions from Hatoyama's mother were recorded as political funds coming from other donors — some of whom were dead. Hatoyama has promised to pay hundreds of millions of yen in tax on that sum, but the damage control has been slow. Still, according to a recent survey in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, the DPJ's approval rating is still 23 points higher than that of the LDP. But cries for Ozawa's resignation grow louder as each day moves the ruling party closer to July's election.

In the meantime, Toshikawa says the situation between Ozawa and Hatoyama is delicate. He says, "Hatoyama isn't enjoying Ozawa's frequent interference" on issues from the budget to what to do about the Futenma base relocation. But, he adds, Hatoyama needs Ozawa's support and that of the DPJ to pass the 2010 budget, which will require patience through the end of March.

Addressing the DPJ's annual party convention last week, Ozawa said, "During the 40 years of my political career ... I have carried out my endeavors with only one aim in mind, that is to see parliamentary democracy, a true democracy in which changes of government are possible, established in Japan."

The result of his questioning this weekend will likely fall somewhere between taking the entire DPJ ship with him and his ability to stage a great recovery.

View Article in Time

Tokyo freezes $33 bln spending plan

(AFP) – Oct 15, 2009

TOKYO — Japan's government announced on Friday it would freeze spending of about 33 billion dollars from the previous administration's extra budget as part of its war on waste in the public sector.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's cabinet approved the suspension of spending of about 2.93 trillion yen (33 billion dollars), out of a supplementary budget of 14.7 trillion yen for the year to March 2010.

The cuts were just short of the government's target of three trillion yen. Former premier Taro Aso pushed the extra budget through parliament in May to fund his economic stimulus measures.

The savings were "unprecedented," said Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party took power last month, ending more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule.

"In a way, this is the start of new politics," he said.

Hatoyama's centre-left government plans to use the money to fund its campaign promises, such as expanded childcare allowances, an end to expressway tolls and free public high school tuition fees.

It has scrapped some projects including a planned national media arts centre aimed at promoting manga cartoons and animated films, as well as an expansion of highways and public housing development programmes.

The Hatoyama government will continue to try to cut waste, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano.

Hatoyama has "instructed the ministers to conduct thorough spending cuts in drafting (the next year's) budget," Hirano told a regular press conference.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved

Cheapskate Confessions: Japan on a Budget

Cheapskate Confessions: Japan on a Budget

It’s no secret that Japan is an expensive destination.

In fact, Tokyo has recently reclaimed its spot as the world’s most expensive city, with Osaka-Kobe right behind, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.

Well even in one of the world’s most expensive countries, a vacation doesn’t have to bring on budgetary meltdown.

We’ll show you how to defy the naysayers and survive your trip to Japan with a few extra bucks left in your wallet.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Before you can even worry about where you’re going to eat or sleep, you’ve got to buy a plane ticket.

Luckily, if you know where to look, you can get one pretty cheaply. How cheap? Well, during the off season — for example, in March or April — prices frequently dip below $500. The secret is to use a Japanese travel agency.

Since these agencies buy tickets in bulk, their prices can be significantly cheaper than Orbitz or Expedia or other travel companies that don’t have a specific regional focus. These companies don’t devote much effort to advertising themselves in English, so few people know about the deals they offer.

Prices offered by different travel agencies can vary significantly, so if you’re truly devoted to truly cheap cheapness, we recommend that you proceed through the list below and obtain a quote from each and every agency before purchasing your ticket. Remember that you can always call the agency up and speak to them in English.

Amnet
(800) 929-2663
http://www.amnet-usa.com (Japanese)

HIS USA
(800) ASK-4-HIS
http://his-usa.com/ja/top/Top.aspx (Japanese)

IACE Travel USA
(800) 872-4223
http://www.iace-usa.com/index_us.htm (English version)

JTB USA
(800) 235-3523
http://www.jtbusa.com/enhome (English version)

Kintetsu International
(630) 250-8840
http://www.kintetsu.com (English)

NaviTour USA
(800) 303-2006
http://www.navitourusa.com/en/s.phtml (English)

One last note: international travel specialists like San Francisco-based Air Brokers (http://www.airbrokers.com) can sometimes beat the prices of even the Japanese travel agencies!

EAT CHEAP

It’s true that Japan is the land of $8 orange juice and $50 cantaloupe, and that food and drinks can be really expensive if you just go stumbling into any old place and blindly order items. But there are some ways to get a cheap meal in Japan…

Our first suggestion is to search out Japanese fast food chains like Matsuya and Yoshinoya. These places will serve you a beef bowl or a plate of curry for $4-$5. If you get tired of this fare, try convenience stores, which offer ready-made food of all kinds for decent prices.

If you’re looking for something with a bit more culinary merit, try a kaitenzushi, a sushi restaurant where the food comes around to you on a conveyor belt, served on plates that are color-coded to indicate price. When your wallet is empty, stop eating. Ramen is another inexpensive option, and luckily the restaurant version tastes a lot better than the instant stuff sold in the US.

McDonald’s — a chain as ubiquitous in Japan as in America — is always a good bet for cheap eats, but it’s kind of a cop-out. I mean, having made the long journey to Japan, you wouldn’t even think of settling for a burger and fries, right?

Also note that in most Japanese restaurants, if they bring you any kind of appetizer, you’re going to have to pay for it. If you don’t want it, just say you don’t want it. Or put on an icky face and make frenzied “go away” motions with your hands.

SLEEP CHEAP

In Japan, as in most places, youth hostels are generally the cheapest option. Hostels.com (http://hostels.com) lists several establishments that’ll sell you a bed in Tokyo for less than $20. We hope this outrageous reasonableness comes as a pleasant surprise.

If you can’t or don’t want to stay in a youth hostel, try a business hotel. You should have no problem finding a room for less than $100. Do keep in mind that these places are pretty cramped. Bathrooms, for instance, are often little more than glorified shower stalls.

If you think a business hotel might fit your needs, take a look at Super Hotel’s English-language website (http://www.superhotel.co.jp/en). This chain does everything possible to cut costs, going so far as to eliminate phones in guests’ rooms. Prices vary based on location, but the cost for a room tends to hover right around $50. The English version of the website doesn’t feature all the chain’s locations, but it does list options at popular destinations.

There are plenty of interesting alternative choices.

Assuming you’re not claustrophobic, you might want to try a capsule hotel. Popular with drunken businessmen who’ve missed the last train, capsule hotels will offer you a space barely big enough to wriggle into, but they are inexpensive.

Capsule hotels probably aren’t a good option for couples or families, since the environment isn’t suitable for kids and many don’t allow women. But if it works for you, expect to pay just about $30 a night.

Alternately, you could stay overnight at a love hotel. These are intended for couples in need of an hour or two of private time, but they offer nightly rates which can be significantly lower than those of regular hotels.

Love hotels list rates for “rest” and “stay.” The “rest” rate is the per-hour rate and the “stay” rate is for the full night.

A significant upshot to this choice is that these places are overflowing with, er, character. We’re talking heart-shaped beds and TV with all the channels. “Stay” rates average about $50.

If your luggage is light and you’re truly into pinching pennies, you could also spend the night at an internet/manga cafe, where you pay one flat fee to use the computer and read comics over a cup of tea for a fixed amount of time. Nobody’s going to think you’re weird if you do this.

Many of these places actually offer overnight packages, which can run as low as $10. Typically, you’ll get your own little cubicle with a reclining chair, and if you’re lucky, the place might even have a shower.

CHEAP TRANSPORTATION

Our first tip is to never even think about using a taxi. Banish the thought from your mind.

A taxi ride from Tokyo’s Narita airport into the city costs approximately $160 and takes about two hours. By contrast, a ticket on a non-express train costs $10-$12 and takes around an hour and a half. Now, in many other cities around the world, public transportation often isn’t the most pleasant or most efficient way to get around, but Japanese trains run on time, are very clean and go just about everywhere you want them to.

At most stations, you’ll buy your tickets from a machine that can display instructions in English. The only thing that’s annoying about relying on trains is that they generally stop running between midnight and 1:00 a.m. Taxis prowl the streets looking for those who’ve missed the cutoff.

If your travel plans involve flitting around from city to city, you might save some money by purchasing a Japan Rail Pass (http://www.japanrailpass.net). Japan Rail, or JR, operates the majority of the rail lines in the country and can take you just about anywhere you want to go. Passes are sold in 7-day, 14-day, and 21-day increments. The nice thing is that the Japan Rail Pass is eligible for travel about the “shinkansen,” or bullet train, a super-fast, fun, and all-around really neat form of transportation that is ordinarily rather expensive. A 7-day Japan Rail Pass runs about $350. The pass is not sold in Japan, so you’ll need to pick one up before arriving there.

If you happen to be traveling to Japan during a school holiday, consider buying a seishun juhachi kippu (”18-year-old youth’s ticket”), a super-cheap, all-you-can-ride train pass. The passes are only available for purchase during school holidays (ie- they go on sale just before vacation starts, but most likely won’t be available at the very end of the vacation period).

The passes are only valid on JR’s slower trains. Despite the name, anybody can use a seishun juhachi kippu, and they are available for purchase at most JR stations. Each seishun juhachi kippu gives you five days of unlimited travel and costs about $100. Two or more people can use one ticket on the same day. For your reference, the school vacation schedule in Japan is roughly as follows:

March 1 - April 10
July 20 - September 10
December 10 - January 20

We’ll throw out one more option for those looking to travel long distances: the glorious overnight bus, a transport institution known and loved by Japan’s young and penniless. Overnight buses are uncomfortable and cramped but cheap. A trip from Tokyo to Osaka will set you back about $80, which is definitely less expensive than a trip by plane or shinkansen.

Japan Bus Web (http://www.bus.or.jp/e/index.html) operates a large English database chock full of detailed bus info.

OTHER STUFF

So you’ve probably got all kinds of ideas about stuff you want to do once you get to Japan. Unavoidably, most of that stuff is going to cost money. But don’t forget that people-watching can be an enjoyable–and completely free–activity. Great places to do this include Shibuya and Harajuku in Tokyo and America-mura in Osaka. Japan is full of colorful and crazy fashions and just sitting on the sidelines and watching the crowd can be pretty entertaining.

You might think about working some hiking and/or camping into your schedule. These activities are fun, provide you with opportunities to meet local people, and are cheap to boot. Check out Outdoor Japan (http://www.outdoorjapan.com) for some information on outdoor activities. And remember… it’s completely free to climb Mt. Fuji. Just remember to take your own drinks and snacks, since those sold onsite are way overpriced.

One final tip that may shave a few bucks off the total cost of your trip: although many people consider travelers’ checks an anachronism now that ATMs are so widespread, bringing traveler’s checks to Japan will net you a slightly better exchange rate. If you can get the traveler’s checks for free, you’ll save a little money in the end.

YOU CAN DO IT

Anybody who told you it couldn’t be done was just saying it to make themselves feel better. Cheap travel in Japan isn’t an impossibility. It takes dedication and planning and maybe a little self-deprivation, but in the end, returning home from such an ultra-expensive country with some change to spare is a pretty good feeling.

By Mike Day for Petergreenberg.com.