The East Asia Thread

[Glassfan]

Seoul Has a Duty to Feed Hungry N.Koreans

Food aid to North Korea is expected to become the focal point of any thaw in Seoul-Pyongyang relations. After agreeing to hold reunions of families separated by the Korean War on Feb. 20-25, officials from the North and South also signaled future discussions about humanitarian aid.

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday said South Korea needs to "make efforts to expand mutual understanding" with North Korea by "getting closer to the living conditions of North Koreans suffering from hunger."

North Korea is also in a desperate situation, so it may know better than to act carelessly, even though it is already noisily threatening to scrap the family reunions if joint South Korea-U.S. military drills continue or if the South Korean press criticizes the regime's leader Kim Jong-un.

Official South Korean food aid to North Korea ground to a halt in 2008. The UN World Food Programme recently decided to shut down five nutritional biscuit factories it had been operating in the North because international donations had run dry. Even a humanitarian organization created by former Microsoft head Bill Gates has excluded North Korea from its list of aid recipients citing distrust.

The halt in aid came due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs, and major provocations including the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

Providing food aid to a country that threatens the world with nuclear weapons poses a huge dilemma. But the reality is that our fellow Koreans are starving to death just across the border.

 

[Glassfan]

DPJ exec’s denial of Nanjing stands

Jin Matsubara, the Democratic Party of Japan’s Diet affairs chief, declined Friday to retract his remarks almost seven years ago insisting that there was no Nanjing Massacre, a move likely to stir the controversy already brewing over an NHK governor’s similar denial of one of the most notorious wartime atrocities committed by Japanese troops in China.

During a session of the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 25, 2007, Matsubara maintained that the wartime Chinese government didn’t claim there was or criticize a massacre by Japanese troops in Nanjing, leading to the natural conclusion that no mass-killing took place when they conquered the city in December 1937.

“There was no big massacre, nor a massacre. There’s no doubt about that,” Matsubara told the Lower House session.

Based on records left by the Japanese military, mainstream Japanese scholars and historians have agreed that massacres were in fact committed in Nanjing by Japanese troops, in particular of numerous captive Chinese soldiers.


An article on the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" published in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun. The headline reads, "'Incredible Record' (in the Contest to Cut Down 100 People) —Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings"

 

[Glassfan]

U.S. vows to defend Japan if conflict erupts in East China Sea



WASHINGTON – Secretary of State John Kerry vowed Friday that the United States would defend Japan against attack, even in conflicts involving islands claimed by China and Taiwan, as tensions continue to boil between the Asian powers.

Kerry, who said he would visit China next week, met in Washington with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and reaffirmed the 1960 treaty that commits the United States to protect its ally.

“That includes with respect to the South China Sea,” he said, before correcting himself to say the East China Sea, where China and Japan have conflicting claims.

“The United States neither recognizes nor accepts China’s declared East China Sea ADIZ and the United States has no intention of changing how we conduct operations in the region,” Kerry said.

The United States and its allies are increasingly concerned China will take similar action in the South China Sea, where the Philippines in particular has voiced worries about Beijing’s maritime claims.

Hagel, Foreign Minister Discuss U.S.-Japan Alliance



WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2014 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met at the Pentagon yesterday to discuss ways to deepen and enhance bilateral cooperation, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

Hagel also endorsed a forward-looking revision of the 1997 Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation to enable Japan to play a more active role in promoting regional peace and stability, the press secretary said.

“Secretary Hagel said the United States would continue to cooperate closely with Japan on strengthening and broadening the alliance to meet the security challenges of the 21st century,” Kirby said.

 

[CavLancer]

Okay, so if the Obama administration doesn't flip flop on this when the shooting starts, the war is on.

 

[Glassfan]

China, Taiwan hold highest-level talks

Taiwan and China are holding their highest-level talks since splitting amid a civil war 65 years ago, hoping to further boost contacts and ease lingering tensions, even as political developments on the self-governing island swing away from Beijing’s goal of eventual unification.

Tuesday’s discussions in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing constitute the highest-level interaction between government officials of the two sides since the 1949 division — apparently a concession from Beijing which otherwise refuses to formally acknowledge Taiwan’s government.

No official agenda has been released, but Taiwan’s lead negotiator Wang Yu-chi says he hopes to discuss setting up of permanent representative offices on each other’s territory and will push for greater Taiwanese representation in international organizations.

China is adamant that Taiwan is part of its territory and must accept its political authority, threatening to attack the island if it declares formal independence or delays unification indefinitely. It’s backed up that caveat with a military buildup aimed at fending off any intervention by the U.S., which is legally bound to ensure the island’s security.

...Yet, Taiwanese opposition to unification has only seemed to harden, with about 80 percent supporting the status-quo of de-facto independence and just a sliver backing unification outright. China now seems to hope that it can draw Taipei further into its orbit by taking on political issues, albeit in a non-threatening way.

Spoiler :

Difficult to see how the Taiwanese would willingly accept authoritarian mainland rule after having experienced a couple of generations of gradually increasing freedom.

Head of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office Zhang Zhijun (4th R) meets with Wang Yu-chi (4th L), Taiwan's mainland affairs chief, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, February 11, 2014.

 

[Takhisis]

Difficult to see how the Taiwanese would willingly accept authoritarian mainland rule after having experienced a couple of generations of gradually increasing freedom.

A special regime, like that Hong Kong and Macao got, might be a solution to that particular hurdle.

 

[CavLancer]

Isn't HK slowly having the thumb screws tightened? Thought I heard something about that. Protests etc...

 

[Glassfan]

Chinese villagers attack polluting factory, police

BEIJING – Villagers in southwestern China infuriated by a factory that was polluting the environment smashed its offices and equipment, and later clashed with police, underscoring the potential for such concerns to trigger violent unrest.

Residents of Baha, a village in Yunnan province, said Wednesday that police were arresting people involved in Friday’s clash at the local police station. The official Xinhua News Agency said police had identified 16 suspects.

Three villagers reached by phone said they had grown increasingly angry over a local metalwork factory that had been coughing up black smoke and discharging polluted wastewater into the rural area.

Calls to county police rang unanswered.

“We have been living with the factory for 14 years, and we live in dust almost every day and can’t sell our rice and other farm products,” Huang said. “We need to live.”

 

[bugwar]

From the article:

Adm. Jonathan Greenert also stressed that the US would honor its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines amid a seething territorial conflict with China over the resource-rich waters.
...
His remarks — one of the strongest US declarations of support for the Philippines — come as concerns rise that China will attempt to forcefully assert its claim to almost all of the South China Sea.
...
In December, during a visit to the Philippines, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned China against any move to declare an air defense zone in the South China Sea,
a declaration that was seen as an affirmation of the defense ties between Manila and Washington.

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/article/...ief-US-Would-Help-Philippines-South-China-Sea

 

[Glassfan]

MAC chief visits Sun Yat-sen mausoleum

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁&#29734 yesterday visited Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing, paying his respects to the national father, and spoke about the founding of the Republic of China.

The minister arrived at the mausoleum in the morning and climbed up the 392-step stairway into the main hall. After flowers were presented to a seated statue of the national father, a eulogy was read, commemorating the Xinhai Revolution and the founding of the R.O.C. The eulogy went on to say that the national father's Three Principles of the People as well as the R.O.C. Constitution have been realized in Taiwan, urging both sides of the Taiwan Strait to follow the beliefs of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Afterward, the minister and members of his delegation bowed three times beneath the statue before entering the vault.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

The China-Taiwan (Province of China) unification talks are quite interesting, since the KMT is actually pushing for this, though as your earlier article mentioned the people of Taiwan are mostly against it.

 

[Glassfan]

The China-Taiwan (Province of China) unification talks are quite interesting, since the KMT is actually pushing for this, though as your earlier article mentioned the people of Taiwan are mostly against it.

Well, as the earlier article mentioned;

China may feel some urgency because of local elections in Taiwan this year that could swing momentum away from the Nationalist Party of deeply unpopular pro-China President Ma Ying-jeou ahead of the next presidential election in 2016.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch;

U.N. report: North Korea's brutality unparalleled

(CNN) -- A stunning catalog of torture and the widespread abuse of even the weakest of North Koreans reveal a portrait of a brutal state "that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world," a United Nations panel reported Monday.

North Korean leaders employ murder, torture, slavery, sexual violence, mass starvation and other abuses as tools to prop up the state and terrorize "the population into submission," the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea said in its report.

The commission traced the abuses directly to the highest levels of the North Korean government while simultaneously blaming world leaders for sitting on their hands amid untold agony.

The U.N. panel released its 400-page report after hearing from more than 320 witnesses in public hearings and private interviews.

North Korea did not respond to the commission's request for access to the country and information about its human rights practices, according to the commission.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

This Korea thing... I don't like the direction the UN is heading. NBC Nightly News featured drawings by survivors... as substantiating evidence perhaps?

The hundred or so DPRK students we met in December at the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students in Quito, Ecuador were the happiest (and best dressed) of the some-7,000 youths attending. Their program was in line with the Festival's themes of "organized resistance to blockades, embargos and sanctions" and "the struggle of self determination."

One of the workshops was a Solidarity Forum titled "Supporting the Struggle in North Korea."

I do not think they are the isolated hellhole popular media make them out to be...

 

[Glassfan]

It sounds as if you were dealing with ideologically approved children of DPRK leadership. "Princelings". I apologize if I'm incorrect. Torture survivors who testified to the UN are probably not on that list.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Nah... Nobody at this festival was sent by their government -- especially not the 1,000 Colombians nor the 300 Cubans... the Koreans were just well-dressed, well-behaved youth (who also spoke Spanish).

I don't mean to mislead... I was NOT at this festival.

But our delegation said that most of the other youth seemed more misled by the US media, because they were surprised that there was ANY poverty in the US. Our presentation on Dec 9th was published. I'll link it if I find it... but not on this thread.

Back to East Asia... for what appears to be a responsible attitude on DPRK.

S.Korea sets up int'l dialogue mechanism on DPRK issue

SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Tuesday officially launched"the Korean Peninsula Club", a dialogue mechanism involving 21 countries, to strengthen international communication and cooperation on issues about Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) ahead of the upcoming family reunion between the two sides, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Diplomats from 21 Foreign Embassies stationed in Seoul, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Finland, Italy, Mexico and Turkey, attended the opening ceremony of the club held in the building of the Foreign Ministry.

At the ceremony, South Korea's Foreign Ministry explained its recent policies towards DPRK, while foreign diplomats gave their comments and suggestions about dealing with the DPRK issues.

The Foreign Ministry said the ambassadors will have chances to visit the DPRK for meeting with its officials and citizens at least twice a year, which will help them to know more about the current situation of the country.

It is expected to serve as a venue to get useful assessments and advice on the DPRK, which would come from their hands-on experiences and direct contacts with DPRK officials, a senior Foreign Ministry official was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

He added that it was also a chance to boost foreign diplomats' understanding of Seoul's key policies on Pyongyang and ask for support from the international community.

Cho Tae-yong, South Korea's chief envoy on DPRK issue, will hold the regular meetings of the club, the ministry said, adding that members of the club will get together when needed.

Seoul's Foreign Ministry is also considering establishing another similar consultative body comprised of China, Russia, German, UK and other countries which have separate establishments in Pyongyang.

The DPRK youth say that the DPRK struggle is for unification of the peninsula... so this dialog is consistent.

Edit: UN Blast Against North Korea Faces Chinese Rebuke, NK Rage

It looks like this is nothing new, and no charges are being filed.

 

[Glassfan]

Australian held in North Korea

A 75-year-old Australian man working as a Christian missionary in North Korea has been arrested in Pyongyang.

The government is powerless to help him directly as Australia has no diplomatic presence in North Korea and is relying on Swedish officials in the capital to check on the elderly Australian’s well-being.Jouy

John Short, who was on his second trip to North Korea, took religious pamphlets translated into Korea with him, his family said in a statement. His wife, Karen Short, told ABC Radio on Wednesday that her husband had arrived in Pyongyang with a tour group on Saturday morning.
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He had been questioned a number of times at his hotel before being arrested because of the religious materials he was carrying, she said. "Possession of illegal materials, in that we're Christian missionaries and he had some gospel tracts that he had written, and they were in the Korean language,’’ Mrs Short said.

 

[Takhisis]

Obama meets the Dalai lama, the PRC government protests as always.

Spoiler :

President Obama to meet Dalai Lama despite opposition from the Chinese Government

China said ties with the US were weakened when President Obama and the Tibetan spiritual leader last met in 2011
Friday 21 February 2014


President Barack Obama is to meet with the Dalai Lama on Friday, a move which could damage ties between the US and China.

The meeting is part of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's US speaking tour, but China is urging the US President to cancel the event, accusing Washington of giving the Dalai Lama a platform to promote anti-Chinese activities.

But Washington maintains that President Obama is hosting the Dalai Lama in his capacity as a respected religious and cultural leader, and stresses that the US does not support Tibetan independence from China.

The Dalai Lama’s calls for a peaceful struggle for greater Tibetan autonomy away from Beijing, but Chinese officials denounces him as a separatist responsible for instigating self-immolations by Tibetans inside China.

President Obama’s previous meetings with him in 2010 and 2011 saw Beijing claim that Chinese-American ties were damaged.

“The US leader's planned meeting with Dalai is a gross interference in China's domestic politics,” said Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry.

“It is a severe violation of the principles of international relations. It will inflict grave damages upon the China-US relationship.”

Traditionally, when President Obama sees Presidents and Prime Ministers, he hosts them in the Oval Office and allows reporters to witness a short portion of the meeting, but Mr Obama will host the Nobel laureate for a private, morning meeting in the White House's map room.

The change is regarded as an attempt to prevent comparisons being drawn between the conversation and the formal meeting conducted by the President with heads of state.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said: “The United States supports the Dalai Lama's 'Middle Way' approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China.”

Relations between the US and China are already on edge over Beijing's increasingly aggressive steps to assert itself in the region, including in territorial disputes with its smaller neighbours.

China's emergence as a leading global economic and military power has strained ties with Washington, and the two also have clashed over cyber theft and human rights.

Beijing has protested when world leaders have granted an audience to the Dalai Lama in the past, including when he met Prime Minister David Cameron last year, casting a chill over relations between London and Beijing, and delaying a visit to China by Cameron.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exiled in northern India since fleeing China in 1959. He is widely respected around the world for his advocacy of peace and tolerance.

Yesterday he delivered a message of compassion and care for humanity while addressing a right-leaning Washington think tank.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Obama meets the Dalai lama, the PRC government protests as always.

Spoiler :

President Obama to meet Dalai Lama despite opposition from the Chinese Government

China said ties with the US were weakened when President Obama and the Tibetan spiritual leader last met in 2011
Friday 21 February 2014


President Barack Obama is to meet with the Dalai Lama on Friday, a move which could damage ties between the US and China.

The meeting is part of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's US speaking tour, but China is urging the US President to cancel the event, accusing Washington of giving the Dalai Lama a platform to promote anti-Chinese activities.

But Washington maintains that President Obama is hosting the Dalai Lama in his capacity as a respected religious and cultural leader, and stresses that the US does not support Tibetan independence from China.

The Dalai Lama’s calls for a peaceful struggle for greater Tibetan autonomy away from Beijing, but Chinese officials denounces him as a separatist responsible for instigating self-immolations by Tibetans inside China.

President Obama’s previous meetings with him in 2010 and 2011 saw Beijing claim that Chinese-American ties were damaged.

“The US leader's planned meeting with Dalai is a gross interference in China's domestic politics,” said Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry.

“It is a severe violation of the principles of international relations. It will inflict grave damages upon the China-US relationship.”

Traditionally, when President Obama sees Presidents and Prime Ministers, he hosts them in the Oval Office and allows reporters to witness a short portion of the meeting, but Mr Obama will host the Nobel laureate for a private, morning meeting in the White House's map room.

The change is regarded as an attempt to prevent comparisons being drawn between the conversation and the formal meeting conducted by the President with heads of state.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said: “The United States supports the Dalai Lama's 'Middle Way' approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China.”

Relations between the US and China are already on edge over Beijing's increasingly aggressive steps to assert itself in the region, including in territorial disputes with its smaller neighbours.

China's emergence as a leading global economic and military power has strained ties with Washington, and the two also have clashed over cyber theft and human rights.

Beijing has protested when world leaders have granted an audience to the Dalai Lama in the past, including when he met Prime Minister David Cameron last year, casting a chill over relations between London and Beijing, and delaying a visit to China by Cameron.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exiled in northern India since fleeing China in 1959. He is widely respected around the world for his advocacy of peace and tolerance.

Yesterday he delivered a message of compassion and care for humanity while addressing a right-leaning Washington think tank.

Two autocrats, Obama and the Dolly Llama... touching...

 

[Takhisis]

The Dalai Lama isn't a temporal ruler, he's just a priest, or, rather, a monk, as you well know.

And like it or not, Obama was democratically elected, wasn't he? Or is an election only democratic when your candidate wins?

 

[ReindeerThistle]

The Dalai Lama isn't a temporal ruler, he's just a priest, or, rather, a monk, as you well know.

And like it or not, Obama was democratically elected, wasn't he? Or is an election only democratic when your candidate wins?

Oh, I see. Democratically elected socialists must go, but democratically-elected fascists can stay?

7 Questions for the Dalai Lama

From March 24, 2012... Xinhua
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- China's major Tibetan website www.tibet.cn has published a harsh commentary which criticizes the 14th Dalai Lama for instigating self-immolation and advocating Nazi-style racial segregation ideas.

The following is the full text of the commentary.

Editor's Note: It is a universal rule that all religions and their sects should forbid murdering and telling lies, and protect the interests of the country and its people. Tibetan Buddhism is no exception.

It is also a rule of Buddhism and a common understanding that life should be cherished and truth should be respected. However, reviewing some remarks and actions of the 14th Dalai Lama in recent years, the writer cannot help raising some questions to him.

Q1: Why the Dalai Lama deliberately incite Tibetans for self-immolation?

The Dalai Lama called on Tibetans not to celebrate Losar so as to memorize "the fallen heroes of Tibet" in Dharamsala India on Feb.22.

The Dalai Lama is deliberately encouraging Tibetans to self-immolate since he appealed to all Tibetans not to celebrate Losar in memorial of self-immolators.
It's been thousands of years for Tibetans to celebrate Tibetan New Year, which is an important carrier of Tibetan culture, customs and emotions. Tibetans are able to obtain the great soul from Losar after a year of hard work.

However, "self-immolation" is an extreme way to end one's life. In the modern age, any group or force encouraging self-immolation for their illegal purposes in any place is bound to be condemned.
UN declaration on measures to eliminate international terrorism declared that criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular communities for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.

From "3.14 Riots" in 2008 to recent self-immolations, all those incidents were premeditated long before and happened at a price of ordinary Tibetans' peaceful life and even lives?

There is a saying in Buddhism: "Saving one life is better than build a seven-storey pagoda". Looking back, how many young lives have been terminated due to the Dalai Lama's bewitching. Even if the Dalai Lama build hundreds of thousands of temples, it could not offset his sin in inciting repeated self-immolations of young monks.

See the link for more...