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Geo-Strategic Trend - 173. page

People’s Daily: Japan Miscalculated in the East China Sea Situation

People’s Daily recently reported that Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been making a lot of noise about using international arbitration to call for settling the conflicts with China in the East China Sea. Last year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also accused China of breaking its agreement with Japan on “joint development” of natural resources. The People’s Daily article countered that Japan is doing the wrong math on three fronts. The first is by supporting the Philippines, who went through international arbitration. Japan wishes to tie the East China Sea issue to the South China Sea issue. The second is the attempt to distract the Japanese voters from Japan’s failing economic policies in order to gain more seats in the July Japanese Senate election. The third is to snatch Chinese sovereignty in the East China Sea. However, in creating new trouble, Japan will not benefit from the international laws, or fool the Japanese voters, or earn a good relationship with neighbors.  
Source: People’s Daily, March 19, 2016
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0319/c1003-28210788.html

Tsai Ing-wen: Taiwan Expects to Sign FTA with Japan

The major Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that Taiwanese President-Elect Tsai Ing-wen expressed her hope that she would be able to start a negotiation of the Taiwan-Japan Free Trade Agreement (FTA). She commented that Taiwan is determined to get this task done. Tsai made this comment when meeting with Mikio Sasaki, Council Chairman of the Interchange Association Japan (IAJ), which acts as the non-official Japanese Embassy in Taiwan. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has long maintained a close and interactive relationship with Japan. Tsai suggested that Japan can actively participate in her “Five Major Innovation Industries Initiative,” which includes green energy, precision machinery, biotechnology, Internet of Things (IoT) and the defense industry. She also said that Japan can work jointly with Taiwan to develop the Indian and Southeast Asian markets. Mikio Sasaki expressed his agreement on strengthening the relationship between Japan and Taiwan. He thought that Taiwan and Japan are highly complementary in industrial development.
Source: China Times, March 8, 2016
http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20160308006494-260407

VOA: Survey Showed that Fewer Japanese People Feel Close to China

Voice of America published an article which stated that fewer Japanese citizens feel close to China. Japan’s Cabinet authorized the survey. In January, 3,000 people were interviewed and 60 percent of them responded. Of those, 83.2 percent felt that they did not feel close to China. The number is up by 0.1 percent from 2015. It is the highest number since the survey was first conducted. Meanwhile the number of people who feel close to China remains at 14.8 percent, the same as in 2015. The results also showed that 9.5 percent of the people feel that the relationship between China and Japan is relatively good, while 85.7 percent feel the opposite. According to the article, Japan’s Kyodo News felt that the reason that Japanese citizens’ negative feelings toward China have not improved could be related to their concerns over China’s activities in the South China Sea. In addition, it is also an indication that the efforts that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe put forth since 2014 in his contacts with China’s President Xi Jinping have not seemed to gain recognition from his people back home.

Source: Voice of America, March 12, 2016
http://www.voachinese.com/content/japan-china-20160312/3233063.html

Xinhua: Why Does Japan Want to Keep Holding onto Large Amounts of Nuclear Materials?

Xinhua collected a series of articles questioning Japan’s nuclear ambitions. In the introductory paragraph, the article commented, “Japan is a signatory state of ‘the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.’ It claims to adhere to the ‘Three Non-Nuclear Principles.’ These are, ‘not possessing, not manufacturing, and not importing nuclear weapons.’ However, for a long time, it has stored large amounts of sensitive nuclear materials, a serious nuclear safety and nuclear proliferation risk. Right now, Japan has more than 1200 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and about 47.8 tons of separated plutonium, which is enough to produce over a thousand nuclear warheads. Experts have pointed out that Japan’s current storage of sensitive nuclear materials is far beyond what it actually needs. What on earth is Japan planning to do by holding onto so much sensitive nuclear material?” Below are the titles of the articles in the series: 

U.S. Experts Criticize Japan for Holding an Excessive Amount of Plutonium, Causing Worries about the Proliferation of Nuclear Materials
 
Chinese Foreign Ministry: Hope Japan Will resolve International Concerns about Excess Storage of Nuclear Material 
Japan Stores Large Quantities of Sensitive Nuclear Materials; it May Bring Three Risks [of nuclear safety, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear terrorism] 
What Does Japan Want to Do by Holding onto American nuclear materials? 
How long does Japan want to “Deceive (use the logic of an ostrich)” on Nuclear Issues? 
Abe Deliberately Avoids Mentioning the "Three Non-nuclear Principles," Reminding the World [of Japan’s real nuclear risk] 
Japan Never Gave up its Nuclear Ambitions, a Potential Nuclear Power outside the “Nuclear Threshold” 

Source: Xinhua, March 9, 2016 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-03/09/c_128783163.htm

Qiao Liang on the North Korea Issue

Zijing Magazine recently interviewed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Major General Qiao Liang, author of Unrestricted Warfare. Excerpts from the interview, in which Qiao expressed his views on the North Korea issue, follow:

Kim Jong-un wants a security guarantee. He conducted the nuclear bomb tests and the satellite launch with a long-range missile, for the purpose of continuing his regime. He wants the neighboring countries, especially those big countries to give his regime a security guarantee.

The U.S. does not really want to have a war with North Korea. It just wants to create tension in this area, which will then justify its involvement in this area. Therefore, the U.S. will not provide the security guarantee that Kim Jong-un seeks. If South Korea unites with the North, or North Korea becomes a peaceful neighbor, South Korea will see no need for the U.S. to station its army on South Korean territory and neither will Japan.

The U.S. is deploying the "THAAD" anti-missile defense system to create tension between South Korea and China. Its goal is to destroy the China-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement.

North Korea needs to change its attitude toward China. The relationship between China and North Korea is going south.  Qiao said, "China does not want to change North Korea, but North Korea must change its attitude toward China." "You can’t take my stuff and eat my stuff, yet keep creating trouble for me and making me unhappy. This is not acceptable."

Source: Zijing Online, February 28, 2016
http://world.zijing.org/2016/0228/687080.shtml

Chinese Diplomats’ Obscene Behavior in a South Korean Restaurant

South Korean TJBV TV reported on the obscene behavior of several Chinese diplomats in public in a family restaurant in Myeongdong, a commercial shopping area in Seoul. Epoch Times reported the news in Chinese.

On the evening of February 23, over a dozen Chinese men and women were having dinner at the local Myeongdong restaurant. Several men kept touching the women next to them. A few women also sat on the mens’ laps; some even moaned. A male and a female were seen entering a restroom together and the female’s moans could be heard from outside the restroom.

At the same time, another 30 customers were having dinner in the restaurant, including female high school students and children. They asked the Chinese to stop their behavior, but they refused.

The restaurant staff then moved the group to another seating area. Their indecent behavior continued for another hour.

Three Chinese diplomats were in this group, including Consul Wang.

The TJBV‘s report, which was in Korean, can be seen here: https://www.ondemandkorea.com/odk-clips-jtbc-news-room-022616-clip-647.html?lang=cn.

Source: Epoch Times Online, February 27, 2016
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/16/2/27/n4649317.htm

Phoenix: China Experts Advised to Attack Taiwan and South Korea’s THAAD Base

As the U.S. is sending more military forces and the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea, Phoenix, a Hong Kong based media with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported that Chinese experts have recommended using force on Taiwan and attacking South Korea’s THAAD base to counter the U.S.’ threat of using force against North Korea.

On February 6, Phoenix interviewed Yu Yingli, an Asian Pacific expert in Shanghai. Yu said, "I think if the U.S. wants to take the unilateral path of using force, actually we in China should consider tying the Taiwan issue to the North Korean nuclear issue. If the U.S. does not want to rule out the military option on the North Korean nuclear issue, our position on Taiwan, actually, has always been that we do not rule out the option of using force."

Then on February 19, Phoenix quoted military expert Wang Yunfei as saying. "[We] should warn South Korea that, if there is conflict between China and the U.S., the THAAD base, power plant, supply base, and other related facilities in South Korea will be the first target that China’s military will take on. As these facilities are based in South Korea, South Korea should hold the U.S. responsible for the resulting losses and deaths."

Sources:
[1] Phoenix Online, February 16, 2016
http://phtv.ifeng.com/a/20160216/41551232_0.shtml
[2] Phoenix Online, February 19, 2016
http://news.ifeng.com/a/20160219/47493071_0.shtml

Xinhua: ICBC Madrid Branch Searched for Suspected Money Laundering

Xinhua reported on February 18 that Spain’s National Guard and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office searched the Madrid Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Five of the ICBC branch managers were detained. The Spanish police expressed its belief that the ICBC branch was involved in money laundering activities worth at least 40 million euros. One of the Spanish investigators thought that the ICBC branch has a full-blown criminal network. The search is the result of a case involving Chinese smuggling gangs that the government investigated last year. ICBC is the largest commercial bank in China and the Madrid branch is its first branch in Spain. The Chinese Embassy in Spain said that there had been no official communication from the Spanish government regarding the search. The Embassy found out about it through the public media.
Source: Xinhua, February 18, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/finance/2016-02/18/c_128729569.htm