Bharat Rakshak

The Philippines accused China of reclaiming land on a reef in disputed islands in the South China Sea, apparently to build an airstrip or an offshore military base, the country’s top diplomat and other officials said Wednesday, only a day after Washington described Beijing’s actions in the region as “provocative.”

If confirmed, the airstrip would be the first built by China on any of the eight reefs and islands it occupies in the Spratly Islands and would mark a significant escalation in tensions involving several nations in the area.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said that the Philippines lodged the protest against China last month after surveillance aircraft confirmed, and took pictures of the reclamation and dredging being done by Chinese vessels at the Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands, which Manila says violates a regional nonaggression pact.

China replied to the Philippine protest by saying that the reef belonged to it, he said.{That's it. China simply dismisses anything by a wave of its hand}

Del Rosario said it’s not clear what China would build on the reef, which Manila claims as part of its western province of Palawan, but one possibility is an airstrip. Another official says China could also build an offshore military base.

“We’re not exactly sure what are their intentions there,” del Rosario said.

Another senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the issue, said China’s reclamation was first detected by air force planes six months ago. Philippine aircraft searching for a missing Malaysian jetliner in March also spotted the continuing reclamation on the submerged Johnson Reef by at least one Chinese ship backed by smaller vessels. The Philippines and Taiwan already have airstrips in the area.

The government estimates that the reclamation has turned the submerged reef and a sandbar into a 30-hectare (74-acre) landmass that transformed the underwater outcrop into an islet, a senior diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue.

Del Rosario said the Philippines raised the reclamation issue along with the deployment of China Coast Guard ships at the Second Thomas Shoal and “harassments of our fishermen” during a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last week in Myanmar.

Chinese strategic experts on Wednesday said they expected the new government in New Delhi — if Narendra Modi is elected to power on May 16 — to pave the way for greater foreign investment from China and closer trade relations.

“There is the possibility that [Modi] will expand Sino-India economic and trade cooperation and seek more Chinese investment,” said Fu Xiaoqiang, a scholar with the influential China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Mr. Modi’s track record in Gujarat showed that he “places emphasis on infrastructure development, attracting investment and the establishment of special economic zones,” Mr. Fu was quoted as saying by the Global Times , a tabloid known for its hardline views published by the Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily .

The perception among Many Chinese scholars is that India has been wary of allowing Chinese investment in sectors such as telecom, where Huawei and ZTE have already established their presence in India.

Hu Zhiyong, a scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the newspaper that trade imbalance — which exceeded $30 billion last year, in China’s favour — was being widened by India’s “politicisation of economic issues.”

“Compared with capital from the U.S., Japan and South Korea, India has taken a more cautious and restrictive policy toward Chinese investment,” he said. “There are also so-called security concerns over Chinese investment, which has led to denials of major investment by telecom giant Huawei in the country.”

While the deficit “could not be reversed in the short term…, once Mr. Modi takes office, he is expected to exhibit some flexibility in economic policy with China, but will also create some new problems on bilateral trade frictions,” Mr. Hu said.

Philippines-Spratly Islands-China: The Philippines accused China of engaging in construction on Johnson South Reef in the Union Banks of the Spratly Islands. The Philippines also claims the reef and contends that the construction and the reclamation work violate understandings that claimants would undertake no provocative acts.

Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Charles Jose told the press that China has been improving the reef since January or February and appears to be preparing to build an airstrip. The Philippines filed a formal protest with China on 4 April.

Today, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed that China is building on Johnson South Reef. "Construction by the Chinese side on an island in Chinese territory is entirely a matter that comes under Chinese sovereignty," she said. She declined to say what China was building.

Comment: Johnson South Reef is about 250 miles west of the Philippine island of Palawan. In 1988, China captured Johnson South Reef from Vietnam in an armed skirmish in which at least 70 Vietnamese died. China maintains a manned outpost on the island, which is barely above sea level. Philippine press sources reported that Chinese ships have been carrying large shipments of soil to the island to build it up.

It is not clear what the Chinese are building. If China is building an airstrip, it would be its first in the Spratlys. The islet needs a lot of work to make it suitable for a landing strip. Long before that time, it might be suitable for a surveillance radar system. That would heighten concern that China intends to declare an air defense zone for the South China Sea, as it did for the East China Sea.

China-Vietnam: Update. The Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on 14 May issued a safety warning to Chinese firms and workers in Vietnam after angry crowds burned 15 foreign-owned factories in the south. The crowds protested China's placement of an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam.

At the oil rig site, the naval confrontation continued on Tuesday when ships bumped each other again. No casualties were reported.

More than 20 people have died and over 100 were injured in Vietnamese riots, signaling the worst breakdown in relations with China in decades. This follows China’s oil drilling in disputed waters. Hundreds of Chinese have now fled to neighboring Cambodia.

At least five deaths were reported to be Vietnamese, with the rest having been described as mainland Chinese.

The mass rioting included over 20,000 workers on Tuesday, before they split into smaller groups and started attacking factories near Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.

A day after looting and arson had erupted in two southern Vietnamese provinces, aggression by locals against the Chinese initiative had resulted in about 1,000 of them attacking the country’s biggest steel mill overnight, local newspapers and medics reported on Thursday.

"There were about a hundred people sent to the hospital last night. Many were Chinese. More are being sent to the hospital this morning," Reuters heard by phone from a doctor at the Ha Tinh General Hospital.

But the brunt of the Thursday violence was borne by Taiwanese firms (as well as some South Korean ones), as the ensuing chaos of the large-scale attack on the industrial complex resulted in the angry Vietnamese mistaking Taiwanese vehicles labeled ‘Formosa Plastics’ for Chinese ones. Officials from the company – Taiwan’s biggest investor in Vietnam – were not available for comment.

Commuters drive past as riot police (L) stand guard outside a burning factory building (back) in the Vietnamese southern province of Binh Duong on May 14, 2014.(AFP Photo / STR)

Commuters drive past as riot police (L) stand guard outside a burning factory building (back) in the Vietnamese southern province of Binh Duong on May 14, 2014.(AFP Photo / STR)

Now there are reports of at least 600 Chinese fleeing the country for the Cambodian capital, according to the latest information from Phnom Penh. Its national police spokesman told the agency that the runaways had crossed the border at the Bavet international checkpoint and that they have presently been settled at “at guest houses and hotels in Phnom Penh, with around 100 people staying in Bavet town.”

The crossing is on a stretch that connects Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh.

Beijing had on May 2 placed a $1 billion oil rig right in the middle of an area of the South China Sea disputed with Hanoi – an incident that provoked a reaction heralded by many as the worst breakdown in relations between the two countries since 1979, when there was a brief cross-border war.

There have been on and off skirmishes around the rig since its placement, involving aggression between the countries’ vessels. Beijing said Vietnamese ships had rammed its ships 169 times on Tuesday. Hanoi fired back similar accusations.

The oil-rig move then sparked mass riots, first in the industrial zones in the south of the country, and then migrating up into Ha Tinh province.

Before the Formosa Plastics steel mill incident, literally thousands of Vietnamese in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces on Tuesday set fire to foreign factories and industrial zones, prompting mass closures, locals officials reported. Later into Wednesday, the violence had reportedly subsided, before riots moved onto central provinces. By that time, some 460 companies had reported damages to their plants and factories, as dozens of police officers sustained injuries in fierce clashes with the raging crowd.

The USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the US Seventh Fleet, arrives at the port in Manila.(AFP Photo / Jay Directo)

The USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the US Seventh Fleet, arrives at the port in Manila.(AFP Photo / Jay Directo)

"More than 40 policemen were injured while on duty, mainly by bricks and stones thrown by extremists," the local state-run Thanh Nien newspaper reported.

Tuesday and Wednesday incidents had resulted in approximately 600 arrests on charges of arson and looting, according to local police reports.

China has reacted promptly to the chaos with demands that justice is served, the perpetrators are punished and that the families of the more than 20 dead are compensated. The official reaction was relayed by Chinese spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Wednesday. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also sought to reassure Chinese colleagues that justice will take precedence over everything else.

The Chinese statement, published on the government’s website, added that certain contingency measures will be put in place to counter the anti-Chinese aggression taking place to their south. The latest has Chinese authorities accusing Vietnam of somehow assisting the rioters, as concerns by Beijing’s foreign ministry indicate.

Other Southeast Asian leaders voiced similar concerns over the diplomatic standoff and ensuing violence, speaking on Sunday at a summit in Myanmar, following an agreement by Vietnam and the Philippines to place the highest importance on the discussion of China’s territorial aspirations in the South China Sea.

However, it was the United States whose Navy made appears to be in a state of full readiness. It renewed earlier recent calls to bring more ships round to stand guard if the diplomatic situation worsens. In a move to counter the Chinese, Washington has decided to reassert its naval relations with Vietnam, especially as the latter can do little else at this point.

The Philippine government on Thursday released military surveillance photos of Chinese land reclamation on a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea that it said showed Beijing violated a regional agreement not to escalate territorial disputes.

Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Charles Jose said the pictures show Chinese aggressiveness in asserting its claims over the entire South China Sea.

The aerial photographs were accompanied by a caption stating that they were obtained from "Philippine intelligence sources." The caption said the "extensive reclamation" by China on the Johnson South Reef, called Mabini by Manila and Chigua by Beijing, was "destabilizing."

The Chinese Embassy in Manila had no immediate comment, but a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing has said that the area is part of China's territory, and that any Chinese activities at the reef should be of no concern to Manila.

Jose noted that a 2002 nonbinding agreement between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations calls for restraint in conducting activities in the region that would "complicate or escalate disputes" and to not inhabit uninhabited areas

"We want to show people that (China's) actions are part of its aggressive behavior to assert its claim in violation of the DOC," or Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which was signed by China, Philippines and nine other ASEAN members, Jose said.

Chinese-made structures stand on the Johnson Reef, called Mabini by the Philippines and Chigua by China, in the Spratly Islands in South China Sea (AP) Chinese-made structures stand on the Johnson Reef, called Mabini by the Philippines and Chigua by China, in the Spratly Islands in South China Sea (AP) Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said a stronger accord and international arbitration would offer more lasting solutions to the territorial conflicts. A proposed legally binding "code of conduct" between China and Southeast Asian countries is seen as a mechanism to prevent a major armed conflict in the disputed waters. Manila sought international arbitration against Beijing in January 2013 after Chinese government ships took control of a shoal claimed by the Philippines off its main island of Luzon.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Wednesday that it was not clear what China would build on the reclaimed land, but that an airstrip was a possibility.

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the issue, said it could also be used as a military base and a resupply and refueling hub. The official said the reclamation was first detected by air force planes six months ago.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the Philippine military has been monitoring Chinese activities at the reef for several months. "For whatever purpose (the reclamation was done) we still do not know, but we are almost sure that there will be a base," he told reporters Thursday.

An airstrip or a military base on the reef would boost the mobility of Beijing's naval and air forces in the South China Sea region, far from the Chinese mainland.

Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles Jose accused China of 'aggressive behaviour' (AP) Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles Jose accused China of 'aggressive behaviour' (AP) The pictures showed "before-and-after" images — from an untouched reef in 2012, followed by another showing a concrete building jutting out of the water, and the reclaimed land two years later. Philippine aircraft helping search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane in March reported reclamation work was continuing, Jose said.

Del Rosario said Manila lodged a protest against China last month, but that Beijing has ignored it.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing on Wednesday that the reef was part of China's territory and any construction there is covered by its "sovereignty rights."

The Philippine government estimates that the Chinese have reclaimed a land mass of at least 30 hectares (74 acres) from the reef, which Manila says is part of its western Palawan province. What has emerged from the coral outcrop appears like a vast tree-less island of white sand in the middle of turquoise blue waters.

One of the released pictures shows a long pipe connected to a large dredging vessel on the northwestern edge of the reef. A concrete building, likely to be China's outpost on the reef, stands on the southern edge of the emerging islet. A ship is anchored close by.

The reef, part of the Spratly Islands chain, is also claimed by Vietnam, which fought a deadly naval battle against China in the area in 1988.

Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, Kate Hodal, south-east Asia correspondent, and agencies
theguardian.com, Thursday 15 May 2014 10.43 BST
Vietnamese protest against China near Formosa mill in Ha Tinh, Vietnam. A doctor told Reuters that more than 20 people died during the rioting on Wednesday night. Photograph: Str/EPA

Violent reaction in Vietnam to China's expansionist stance in disputed seas has turned deadly, with multiple reports of people being killed during rioting that began with attacks on foreign-owned factories.

Cambodia said hundreds of Chinese nationals had poured across the border from Vietnam to escape the riots.

"Yesterday more than 600 Chinese people from Vietnam crossed at Bavet international checkpoint into Cambodia," Kirt Chantharith, a police spokesman, told Reuters on Thursday. Bavet is on a highway stretching from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial centre, to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

On Thursday the death toll was unclear, although some news agencies reported at least 20 people had been killed.

A top Taiwanese diplomat said rioters had stormed a large Taiwanese steel mill in Vietnam, killing at least one Chinese worker and injuring 90 more. Huang Chih-peng said the violence took place late on Wednesday and early on Thursday at the Formosa steel mill in central Vietnam.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Chinese contractor and a Vietnamese worker died in the violence. China's state-run People's Daily tweeted that 10 Chinese nationals went missing when protesters ransacked a Chinese factory.

A doctor at a hospital in the central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh told Reuters that five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese died during anti-China rioting on Wednesday night.

"There were about 100 people sent to the hospital last night. Many were Chinese. More are being sent to the hospital this morning," the doctor said.

Earlier this week mobs burned and looted scores of foreign-owned factories in southern Vietnam, believing they were Chinese-run when many were actually Taiwanese or South Korean. No deaths were reported in those initial attacks.

On Thursday, China's embassy in Vietnam urged the country's public security authorities to take "effective measures" to protect its nationals' personal safety and legal rights. The embassy made the remark in a statement published on its website, adding that China had launched an emergency mechanism to cope with the effects of anti-Chinese riots in its southern neighbour.

Anti-Chinese sentiment has been running high in Vietnam ever since Beijing deployed an oil rig into disputed waters in the South China Sea on 1 May. There have been encounters including ramming and exchanges of water cannon between Chinese vessels operating near the rig and boats from Vietnam, which wants China out of the area.

According to the English-language version of the Tuoi Tre newspaper, some 600 people have been arrested in Vietnam's southern provinces, where riots erupted on Tuesday amid reports of looting and attacks on police officers.

The government has since issued stark warnings to the Chinese that continued so-called aggression, which had to date been met with diplomacy, would probably turn ugly if it persisted.

With reports on Wednesday from the Vietnam coastguard that the Chinese had also sent two amphibious ships equipped with anti-air missiles to protect their oil rig, commander Major General Nguyen Quang Dam said it would "make no concession to China's wrongful acts" and stressed: "Their violent acts have posed serious threats to the lives of Vietnamese members of law enforcement."

An op-ed piece in the English-language daily Vietnam News was just as transparent with its words: "The Vietnamese people are angry. The nation is angry. We are telling the world that we are angry. We have every right to be angry."

"China should stop violating international law and respect Vietnam's sovereignty," it continued, adding that China's seeming aggression "smacks of a bull doing something wrong just because it can".

"Over thousands of years, we have shown that we never cease fighting aggressors," the op-ed added. "We are proud of our freedom-fighting forefathers and resistance is in our blood. We are a small country, but we are not weak. We will stand as one, united in the cause of protecting our motherland's integrity."

China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, "urged Vietnam not to attempt to further complicate and aggravate the current maritime friction", the state-run Global Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

"China's position on safeguarding its legitimate sovereign rights and interests is firm and clear and will not change," he told Indonesia's foreign affairs minister Marty Natalegawa in a phone conversation, the Global Times said.

The newspaper condemned the protests in an editorial, calling them "the most stunning attack [on] foreign businesses in East Asia in recent years".

"The turmoil is the outcome of Hanoi's years of anti-China propaganda," it said. "Without legitimate grounds and practical capability, Vietnam fabricates and hypes up its jurisdiction over the Xisha and Nansha islands [AKA the Paracel and Spratly islands]. This uncompromising stance, in an attempt to bring its people together, has actually cornered itself."

China's tourism administration has posted a note to its website urging Vietnam-bound tourists to "carefully consider" their plans.

Taiwan's ministry of foreign affairs plans to print thousands of stickers saying "I am from Taiwan" in Vietnamese and English and distribute them to local Taiwanese business owners, to help them avoid the wrath of anti-China mobs. A ministry spokesperson confirmed the plan, but added that the stickers have not yet been distributed.

In 2012 Chinese authorities permitted large-scale anti-Japan protests amid rising tensions between the two countries over competing territorial claims in the East China Sea. Protesters in cities across the country vandalised Japanese shops and smashed Japanese-made cars before authorities ordered them to disperse.

China's propaganda authorities are censoring coverage of the protests, according to a leaked circular obtained by the online magazine China Digital Times. "Absolutely do not report on any news related to 'Chinese-funded enterprises in Vietnam being attacked by Vietnamese,'" it said. "Do not republish foreign coverage."

The Odd Couple: Japan & Taiwan’s Unlikely Friendship
Starting with people-to-people ties, Taiwan is far and away the most Japan-friendly state in Northeast Asia.

By Michal Thim & Misato Matsuoka
May 15, 2014

Japan does not have it easy among its neighbors. Koreans (from both Koreas) and Chinese won’t miss a chance to slam Japan for lack of repentance for Japan’s war-time crimes (needless to say, public figures in Japan give them a good reason every now and then), and relations with Russia, while not being as bad, still face the unresolved dispute over Kuril Islands. However, one relationships stands out in the otherwise awkward position of Japan in the region. Its relationship with Taiwan, while unofficial due to the peculiar status of Taiwan, is unlike any other Japanese bilateral relationship in Northeast Asia. Indeed, it would not be far-fetched to call Taiwan the most Japan-friendly state in Asia.

Naturally, there is no single explanation for why Taiwan does not join its neighbors in their collective dislike of Tokyo. There is certainly a mutual understanding that Taiwan needs Japan’s support should relations between Taiwan and China deteriorate. Likewise – and in the face of Beijing’s pressure on Tokyo regarding Diaoyutai/Senkaku despite – Japanese policymakers understand that Japan’s security would be seriously challenged should Taiwan fall under Beijing’s control. With the return of Shinzo Abe to premiership, there has been remarkable acknowledgment of the importance of Taiwan for Japan’s security. In a January 2013 White Paper, Japan’s defense ministry included a PRC attack on Taiwan as one of the scenarios that could prompt a Japanese conflict with China. Yet, the same could be said about South Korea. That is, it would be hard to imagine another Korean War that would see Japan cooperating with Seoul in one way or another. But relations between South Korea and Japan are a far cry from Tokyo’s relationship with Taiwan.

Another argument can be made that ties to Washington help to facilitate relations between Tokyo and Taipei. The U.S. would certainly not be pleased if Taiwan’s President ran on an anti-Japanese agenda. Taiwan needs the U.S. for its defense, hence, it is sound to assume that whoever is in charge in Taipei will moderate their policy toward Japan. Yet again, however, the same could be said about South Korea, which maintains a formal defense alliance with Washington and hosts a sizable contingency of U.S. troops. Yet, these factors have not resulted in cordial relations between Korea and Japan. Washington is certainly trying to decrease the level of antipathy between its two treaty allies, but it can’t claim much success on that front.

Democracy may also play a role in smoothing relations between Taiwan and Japan. But this too fails to account for why Japan and South Korea don’t have as positive of a relationship as Tokyo and Taipei. Indeed, as the case of Korea and Japan shows, democracy might actually help sow discord between two states as politicians feel the need to cater to public opinion.

Economics also cannot fully account for Japan and Taiwan’s strong bilateral relationship. Japan is Taiwan’s second largest trading partner, while Taiwan is the fifth largest for Japan. But Taiwan and China as well as Japan and China maintain even more extensive economic ties. This can’t overcome the fact that China is Taiwan’s principal security threat and, as the recent Sunflower Movement reminds us, Taiwanese are having serious second thoughts about the direction of cross-strait relations. And China may be Japan’s largest trading partner but this has done little to prevent prolonged tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Another reason that Taiwan and Japan’s bilateral relationship has been so positive is that successive Taiwanese heads of state have held a positive view of Japan. Lee Teng-hui (Taiwan’s President 1988-2000) represents a generation of Taiwanese who received their education from Japan during the colonial period (1895-1945) and who speak Japanese fluently. Lee’s successor, Chen Shui-bian, from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also held a favorable view of Japan and sought closer security ties with Tokyo.

Yet, when the Kuomintang (KMT) party came to power under Ma Ying-jeou in 2008, many expected the new Taiwanese government to reduce ties with Japan at least at the very senior levels of government. This was not an unreasonable position given that the KMT of 2008 was a fundamentally different party from Lee Teng-hui’s KMT in the 1990s. Frustrated with its loss of the presidency for two terms, KMT embraced China (and the CCP) with Lien Chan’s visit in 2005. Moreover, the rapid improvement of cross-strait ties during the first years of Ma’s presidency puzzled Tokyo about where Taipei stood. Thus, the scene was set for a deterioration in bilateral relations.

Yet, nothing of the sort has happened. On the contrary, last April Taipei and Tokyo signed a fisheries agreement that laid down the rules under which Taiwanese fishermen can operate around the Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands. This is a remarkable agreement especially when seen within the broader context of maritime disputes in East and Southeast Asia. Japan signing a similar agreement with South Korea or China would be virtually unthinkable at the present time.

In short, then, their relationship with the U.S., economic ties, similar political systems and an affinity between national leaders all play a role in facilitating Taiwan and Japan’s strong bilateral relationship. But, as noted above, those factors are present with other nations, including some like South Korea which have strained relations with Japan. Perhaps the largest reason for the positive bilateral relationship, then, is that—unlike in other countries, ties with Japan are cherished by Taiwanese of all different groups.

Consider that a survey conducted by the Interchange Association Japan, Japan’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, found that 65 percent of Taiwanese feel either “close” or “really close” to Japan, which stands in stark contrast to China where over 90 percent of Chinese have either an “unfavorable” or “relatively unfavorable” opinions of Japan.

Indeed, Japan is overwhelmingly the most popular country among Taiwanese. When asked what their favorite country was in the same survey, 43 percent said Japan, while only single digits said Singapore, the U.S. or China. The support for Japan is even stronger among Taiwanese aged 20-29, with 54 percent of respondents in that age group listing Japan as their favorite foreign country. By contrast, only 2 percent of respondents between ages of 20 and 29 said China was their favorite foreign country.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry report on Taiwan-Japan relations reveals some of the reasons why Japan is viewed so favorable among Taiwanese. For example, 67 percent of Japanese say they feel either “very close” or “really close” to Taiwan, while tourism reached 1.5 million people in 2012.

This cordiality between the Japanese and Taiwanese people has virtually eliminated any anti-Japanese sentiment in Taiwan, as exemplified by the amount of (mostly private) donations Taiwanese made to Japan in the aftermath of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. There is also an aspect of positive interpretation of common history. It is former President Lee’s generation that maintains a generally positive interpretation of the colonial period, which compares favorable for many Taiwanese with the period of White Terror brought about by the Kuomintang after its retreat to Taiwan in 1949. But, as noted above, there is an immense support for Japan among younger population too. And that translates into great popularity of Japanese products. Young Taiwanese prefer to use Line over WhatsApp and WeChat for their instant messaging, Japan-born Hello Kitty is omnipresent on the streets in Taiwan, and Japanese anime has a large fan base in Taiwan. The positive ideas about history meet widespread admiration for Japanese cultural artifacts and fashion designs.

The friendship is not a top-down driven process; it goes well both ways and it makes Taiwan an outlier among Japan’s neighbors. Japanese, for their part, feel Taiwan’s positivity and reciprocate accordingly. From the perspective of Taiwan’s relations with China, partnership with Japan provides additional security while extensive people-to-people contacts make Japan perhaps the friendliest nation regarding Taiwan’s de facto independence. From the vantage point of Taiwan-U.S. relations, Japan’s genuine interest in preserving Taiwan’s status quo is complementary to the U.S. interests in protecting Japan. Moreover, regional efforts to strengthen the bilateral relationship are in line with declared U.S. policy of rebalancing to Asia and its “alliance network.” But all that stands on a solid and extensive networks of people-to-people contacts between the two island nations.

Michal Thim is a Ph.D. candidate in the Taiwan Studies Program at the China Policy Institute (CPI), University of Nottingham, CPI blog’s Emerging Scholar and a Research Fellow at the Prague-based think-tank Association for International Affairs. Michal tweets @michalthim.

Misato Matsuoka is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick and CPI blog’s Emerging Scholar. Research interests cover the U.S.-Japan alliance, neo-Gramscianism and regionalism in Asia-Pacific.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/05/the-odd- ... riendship/

Because Taiwan is indisputably one of the world’s most pro-Japanese countries, Japan and its people cannot afford to remain indifferent to the country’s future. The relief funds for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami donated by the Taiwanese, who number some 23 million, amounted to a stunning 20 billion (US$250 million). This, however, was not the result of any fund-raising campaigns led by President Ma. Rather, it was the accumulated total of donations made by a large number of people in the island nation. In other words, it genuinely reflects the affection and friendship of the Taiwanese for Japan.
　　　Visiting Taiwan last March 19 to address the third World Taiwanese Congress, slightly over a week after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I was immensely touched by the encouraging words people at every street corner showered me with as soon as they thought I might be Japanese. I heard things -€ such as “Keep up the fight, Japan!”; “Don’t let the disaster get you down. Japan will certainly bounce back on its feet again”; and “We Taiwanese are always on your side.” These and many other encouraging words, uttered by total strangers nearly brought me to tears as I realized how much the people of Taiwan care for my mother country

http://en.yoshiko-sakurai.jp/2011/07/28/2898

Hearing the word “Taiwan” today, many Japanese are instantly reminded with a deep sense of gratitude of the generous and humanitarian relief assistance extended by the country and its people when the Pacific coast of eastern Japan was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011. The edition of Taiwan Kadan I have contains a selection of poems composed in Japanese by members of the tanka group eager to have the Japanese hear their messages of encouragement, hope, and prayers as soon as possible.
　　　One of the poems, this one by Cai himself, reads:
　　　Struck by earthquake and tsunami:
　　　A national calamity.
　　　Save the beloved mother country,
　　　We exhort the young people.
　　　As if to respond to Cai’s appeal, tens of thousands of Taiwanese contributed money and scores actually flew to Japan and visited the affected areas, braving the cold as they selflessly engaged in various relief activities night and day.
　　　Another poem, written by Lin Yu-xiu:
　　　May the cherry blossoms bloom early,
　　　Bringing good luck
　　　To the disaster-struck regions
　　　Of what was my mother country long ago.
　　　Lin’s wish for “cherry blossoms (to) bloom early ” exactly reflected the hope of virtually every single Japanese at the time. At such a time of great devastation, Lin’s heart went out to all of the Japanese badly shaken by the untimely disaster.
　　　Immensely touched and encouraged by the passion of the Taiwanese for brotherly assistance, the Japanese expressed their heartfelt gratitude, which drew this entry in another poem written by Liu Xin-xin:
　　　“Thank you, Taiwan”:
　　　This precious message from Japan
　　　We will be sure to hand down
　　　To our children, and our children’s children...

About the same time as I got hold of the latest issue of Taiwan Kadan, I had a chance to renew an old acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Xu Shi-jie, former Director of TECRO in Tokyo. In last January’s presidential election, Ma Ying-jeou of the incumbent Nationalist Party was re-elected, winning 52% of the votes, but by the time of his inauguration on May 20 his approval rating had declined drastically. Support for Ma has continued to fall since then, registering only 15% in a July survey.
　　　The main reason for the decline of Ma’s popularity reportedly is conspicuous changes in his diplomacy vis-a-vis China. During election campaigns, he had pledged to not pursue political negotiations with China in the name of peace consultations. After winning the election, however, Ma began to state that he saw some room for consultations, which many observers recognize as actually bordering on political negotiations. China’s ambition to annex Taiwan is obvious. If Taiwan reveals even the slightest intention to pursue a policy of appeasement with China, we can expect the latter to quickly start moving to take advantage of the situation.
　　　I believe it was only natural that Mr. Xu aked me during our latest meeting about the extent to which Japan would act on behalf of Taiwan if the status quo were endangered.
　　　With the national interests of Taiwan and Japan overlapping each other significantly, I believe Japan should do everything it can on behalf of Taiwan, if push comes to shove. That ought to be completely in line with the major changes in world strategy currently pursued by Asia-Pacific nations, including the US.

http://en.yoshiko-sakurai.jp/2012/08/07/4026

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a historic stride Thursday toward his long-held ambition of transforming Japan’s pacifist defense policy, ordering the ruling parties to launch talks on removing the self-imposed ban on using the right to collective self-defense.

Abe’s crusade to remove it has fanned fears and anxieties among critics at home and abroad who believe the move is the first step toward scrapping the pacifist stance that has guided Japan under the postwar Constitution.

“Japan would be allowed to become a warring party even if it is not directly attacked. This would be a very big change in value judgment” for the Japanese government, said Miho Aoi, a law professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.

Article 9 of the Constitution states that Japan will “forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”

Removing this limitation would shift policy considerably when it comes to the use of military force, Aoi said.

Under the right to collective self-defense, Japan would be able to counter an armed attack on a foreign nation with which it has “close ties” — even if Japan itself is not directly attacked.

For decades, the government has maintained that exercising this right is prohibited under Article 9, which limits the use of force to the “minimum necessary” to defend one country only — Japan.

Previous Cabinets have argued that Article 9 does not deny Japan the right to wage war if attacked, but ruled out using collective self-defense to come to the aid of another country.

Abe is expected to try to allay the public by setting strict conditions under which the government could exercise the right.

But on May 2, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba said in Washington that Japan’s right to use collective self-defense “will be very limited at the initial stage” but “can be expanded further,” if necessary.

Ishiba, the No. 2 man in the party after Abe, did not elaborate. But his comment has fueled concerns that Abe may be trying to gradually undercut Article 9 by expanding the Self-Defense Forces’ operations overseas.

Meanwhile, military experts and many SDF officers also point out that it is becoming increasingly difficult for one country to defend itself without alliances with other countries.

For example, state-of-the-art weapons and defense systems have become more advanced and expensive, requiring regular and closer joint development, operations and information-sharing among allied countries.

Japan and the U.S. jointly operate anti-ballistic missile defense systems to monitor and intercept missiles that could be fired by North Korea.

But without the right to collective self-defense, a Japanese commander would not be allowed to shoot down a North Korean ballistic missile flying toward an American territory like Guam. If Japan refuses to respond in such a scenario, defense officials fear it would jeopardize the Japan-U.S. military alliance.

“The U.S. may expect us to shoot down a missile (flying toward an American territory), but we actually won’t. Such a situation could actually happen,” said retired Vice Adm. Yoji Koda of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

“We would be able to fire one with no hesitation” if Japan were allowed to use the right to collective self-defense, he said.

The possibility of a military clash between China and Japan has become more likely than ever, as the two countries test each other over the disputed Senkakus Islands in the East China Sea.

Under the Japan-U.S. security treaty, the U.S. would be obliged to help Japan defend the islets, known as Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan, if a military conflict erupted over them.

Without the right to collective self-defense, an SDF ship would not be allowed to defend a U.S. naval ship being attacked by a third country on the high seas unless the Japanese ship was directly attacked.

If Japan avoided using military force to defend a U.S. ship during a joint operation, Japan would likewise lose the trust of Washington, bringing an end to the Japan-U.S. military alliance, experts warned.

“What China is doing against Vietnam and the Philippines right now in the South China Sea could take place in the East China Sea, too,” said former Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto, now a professor at Takushoku University in Tokyo, referring to Beijing’s claims on two other sets of disputed islands.

One strange thing about these debates on the right of collective self-defense is that Japan is the only country in the world that is struggling with such legal and technical issues after two atomic bombs put an end to the war.

Article 51 of the United Nations Charter bestows all member states the right of collective self-defense and no country questions its legitimacy. Japan has been a very peaceful state and has fought in no wars since World War II ended 69 years ago. Nonetheless, many people at home and abroad feel uncomfortable about Abe’s push to legalize collective self-defense. This can be at least partially attributed to his international reputation as a potentially dangerous nationalist intent on revising the history of Japan’s aggression in the 1930s and ’40s under state Shinto.

Surasena wrote:Christopher Sidor obviously knows more than Abe & Japanese nationalists who signed the fisheries agreement with Taiwan about the Senkaku's.

KMT doesn't represent what the Taiwanese general public thinks on these issues, the recent protests are an indication.

From another Japanese nationalist:

Because Taiwan is indisputably one of the world’s most pro-Japanese countries, Japan and its people cannot afford to remain indifferent to the country’s future. The relief funds for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami donated by the Taiwanese, who number some 23 million, amounted to a stunning 20 billion (US$250 million). This, however, was not the result of any fund-raising campaigns led by President Ma. Rather, it was the accumulated total of donations made by a large number of people in the island nation. In other words, it genuinely reflects the affection and friendship of the Taiwanese for Japan.
　　　Visiting Taiwan last March 19 to address the third World Taiwanese Congress, slightly over a week after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I was immensely touched by the encouraging words people at every street corner showered me with as soon as they thought I might be Japanese. I heard things -€ such as “Keep up the fight, Japan!”; “Don’t let the disaster get you down. Japan will certainly bounce back on its feet again”; and “We Taiwanese are always on your side.” These and many other encouraging words, uttered by total strangers nearly brought me to tears as I realized how much the people of Taiwan care for my mother country

http://en.yoshiko-sakurai.jp/2011/07/28/2898

Hearing the word “Taiwan” today, many Japanese are instantly reminded with a deep sense of gratitude of the generous and humanitarian relief assistance extended by the country and its people when the Pacific coast of eastern Japan was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011. The edition of Taiwan Kadan I have contains a selection of poems composed in Japanese by members of the tanka group eager to have the Japanese hear their messages of encouragement, hope, and prayers as soon as possible.
　　　One of the poems, this one by Cai himself, reads:
　　　Struck by earthquake and tsunami:
　　　A national calamity.
　　　Save the beloved mother country,
　　　We exhort the young people.
　　　As if to respond to Cai’s appeal, tens of thousands of Taiwanese contributed money and scores actually flew to Japan and visited the affected areas, braving the cold as they selflessly engaged in various relief activities night and day.
　　　Another poem, written by Lin Yu-xiu:
　　　May the cherry blossoms bloom early,
　　　Bringing good luck
　　　To the disaster-struck regions
　　　Of what was my mother country long ago.
　　　Lin’s wish for “cherry blossoms (to) bloom early ” exactly reflected the hope of virtually every single Japanese at the time. At such a time of great devastation, Lin’s heart went out to all of the Japanese badly shaken by the untimely disaster.
　　　Immensely touched and encouraged by the passion of the Taiwanese for brotherly assistance, the Japanese expressed their heartfelt gratitude, which drew this entry in another poem written by Liu Xin-xin:
　　　“Thank you, Taiwan”:
　　　This precious message from Japan
　　　We will be sure to hand down
　　　To our children, and our children’s children...

About the same time as I got hold of the latest issue of Taiwan Kadan, I had a chance to renew an old acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Xu Shi-jie, former Director of TECRO in Tokyo. In last January’s presidential election, Ma Ying-jeou of the incumbent Nationalist Party was re-elected, winning 52% of the votes, but by the time of his inauguration on May 20 his approval rating had declined drastically. Support for Ma has continued to fall since then, registering only 15% in a July survey.
　　　The main reason for the decline of Ma’s popularity reportedly is conspicuous changes in his diplomacy vis-a-vis China. During election campaigns, he had pledged to not pursue political negotiations with China in the name of peace consultations. After winning the election, however, Ma began to state that he saw some room for consultations, which many observers recognize as actually bordering on political negotiations. China’s ambition to annex Taiwan is obvious. If Taiwan reveals even the slightest intention to pursue a policy of appeasement with China, we can expect the latter to quickly start moving to take advantage of the situation.
　　　I believe it was only natural that Mr. Xu aked me during our latest meeting about the extent to which Japan would act on behalf of Taiwan if the status quo were endangered.
　　　With the national interests of Taiwan and Japan overlapping each other significantly, I believe Japan should do everything it can on behalf of Taiwan, if push comes to shove. That ought to be completely in line with the major changes in world strategy currently pursued by Asia-Pacific nations, including the US.

http://en.yoshiko-sakurai.jp/2012/08/07/4026

Christopher Sidor wrote:Taiwan's official name is Republic Of China.

Christopher Sidor wrote: It is represented all over the world as China(Taipei). Not Formosa, Not Taiwan but RoC.

Christopher Sidor wrote: 14-Sept-2010 = Japanese CG detains a PRC's fisherman boat on 7-Sept-2014 which had violated the Japanese territorial waters near Senkaku Islands. RoC's citizens protested in front of the Japanese Interchange Association in Taipei. The protesters threw fish and burned Japanese flags.
25-Sept-2012 = A fleet of 40 private boats from RoC and 12 RoC's Coast Guard Ships fought running water canon battles with the Japanese Coast Guard.

And about the help which RoC gave to Japan in the recent tsunami and Fukushima disaster hell even we helped pakistan when an earthquake hit PoK. There were even alleged reports that Indian troops stationed on LoC had rescued Pakistani soldiers trapped in their bunkers across LoC. If a disaster of magnitude similar to Fukushima were to strike PRC then also we would help if asked for and offer them support if asked for. That does not mean that we are going to be all honky-dorky with PRC or vice-versa.

China has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam, state media reported on Sunday, after a wave of anti-China unrest following Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in contested waters.

The announcement came after Vietnamese civil society groups on Saturday called for fresh demonstrations against China following riots earlier in the week which left two Chinese workers dead and more than 100 injured.

But Vietnamese authorities, which have occasionally allowed protests to vent anger at the country's giant neighbour, warned they would "resolutely" prevent any further outbursts.

More than 3,000 Chinese nationals had been evacuated from Vietnam as of Saturday afternoon, China's official Xinhua news agency reported early on Sunday.

"They returned to China with the assistance of (the) Chinese embassy to Vietnam," it said, citing China's foreign ministry.

The Chinese government is also arranging for a chartered plane and vessel to evacuate the staff of China 19th Metallurgical Corporation, a contractor of one of the plants badly hit by the recent violence, Xinhua added.

Earlier on Saturday Beijing advised its nationals against travelling to Vietnam, which has over the past week seen its worst anti-China unrest in decades.

Worker demonstrations spread to 22 of Vietnam's 63 provinces in the last week, according to the Vietnamese government, with enraged mobs torching foreign-owned factories.

An alliance of 20 vocal Vietnamese NGOs has called for fresh protests in the capital Hanoi, the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, and other areas against China's "aggressive actions" in the South China Sea.

However, it urged participants to remain peaceful following the chaos Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Those violent actions created a bad image for patriotic demonstrations and the people of Vietnam; therefore, they must be stopped," said a statement issued on social media late Friday.

The alliance comprises largely of anti-government organisations and is believed to have played a role in stirring the recent protests.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flatly denies as a “misconception” the view that Japan will return to being a country that wages war if it sidesteps war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

But as he tries to justify his drive to revamp the nation’s security policy by removing the government’s long-standing ban on collective self-defense, or defending allies under armed attack, some people have found themselves with more questions than answers.

“By reworking the legal framework to cope with any contingencies, we can bolster deterrence, avoid future conflicts and prevent our country from being dragged into a war,” Abe asserted Thursday.

Abe made the remarks after his 14-member advisory panel on the issue handed him a report the same day urging the government to change its interpretation of Article 9 to legalize the use of collective self-defense to address mounting regional threats.

For skeptics, one key question is whether Abe should be viewed as a nationalist who had no qualms about provoking Japan’s neighbors by visiting war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, or a pacifist who has learned the lessons of Japan’s World War II defeat and is eager to foster global peace.

In line with the panel’s recommendations, lawmakers were told to examine whether Article 9 should be reinterpreted. The article states that the Japanese people renounce war as a sovereign right and “the threat or use of force” as a means of settling international disputes. It also says “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” The government has interpreted this to mean that, while Japan has the right to collective self-defense under the United Nations, exercising it is banned by Article 9.

Proponents of lifting the ban say security threats from an increasingly aggressive China and North Korea’s nuclear strides warrant this change and stronger defenses, implying that either country might decide to attack Japan’s ally, the United States. Opponents are wary of leaving Japan’s pacifist stance behind for a more militaristic one that has a greater chance of leading to conflict.

“He’s left the impression that he is not critical about war, as he went to Yasukuni Shrine, and now we have the issue of collective self-defense, so basically it is an outgrowth of that,” said Sven Saaler, an associate professor of modern Japanese history at Sophia University.

“I don’t think he wants Japan to go to war, and it’s more about preparing for every scenario, but if he proceeds with this and goes on to revise Article 9, then it will trigger a sense of danger,” Saaler said, calling the pacifist clause Japan’s “promise” to the world. “It may be a domestic issue but how the world will see (it) is also an important factor to consider.”

Abe has tried to change his hawkish image on the global stage, but his contentious visit to Yasukuni still drew rebukes from China and South Korea, which have tasted Japan’s aggression. The shrine honors Class-A war criminals along with millions of war dead.

Abe’s panel concluded that Article 9, “as it is,” can be interpreted to mean collective self-defense falls under “the minimum” level of force necessary for self-defense allowed under the Constitution. Abe asked the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito to start debating this sensitive and divisive assertion to see if common ground can be found.

“I’m not sure what kinds of steps it (the government) will take from now but it will be an unprecedented and yet important one,” Shunji Yanai, former Japanese ambassador to the United States and head of the panel, said.

The Constitution has never been amended since it took effect in 1947, with a key member of Abe’s security panel describing it as “so entrenched” that “it is reasonable to change its interpretation.”

Government officials say Japan will explain what the aim of the broad reworking of security policy is to dispel concern that Japan could revert to militarism.

Saaler, a German expert well-versed in history, sees some similarities between Japan and Germany, especially in their transition from aggressors to pacifist members of the international community. But he said that how to come to terms with history is different for each.

“Reconciliation (between aggressors and victims) is a process that takes a long time … and Germany has continued to make apologies over a long period of time and so has Japan,” Saaler said. “But when the issue of collective self-defense is put together with (Abe) going to Yasukuni, it raises doubts.”

Members of a terrorist group believed to be hiding out in Pakistan or Afghanistan were behind last month’s attack on a railway station in western China that left three people dead and dozens injured, Chinese authorities said on Sunday.

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a banned separatist group known to have its top members operating out of cells in Pakistan, had planned the April 30 attack on the railway station in Urumqi, the provincial capital of its western Muslim-majority Xinjiang region, officials said. The ETIM is pushing for independence for Xinjiang’s native Uighur ethnic group.

Xinjiang provincial authorities said on Sunday the attack last month had been organised by ETIM member Ismail Yusup from “outside China”, without specifying in which country he was operating out of.

The government said he had, on April 22, ordered “10 partners” in Xinjiang to set off explosives and attack people with knives at Urumqi railway station.

Defying added security

The attack rattled Chinese authorities, taking place on a day when Chinese President Xi Jinping was concluding a visit to Urumqi and Xinjiang, defying the added security measures in place.

Two Uighur members of the group, Saderdin Sawut and Memetabudula Ete, were killed in the attack — with some reports suggesting they had set off suicide bombs — while eight others were apprehended by police.

The government said investigations had shown that the members of the gang had “started to preach Islamic extremism in 2005”. Mr. Yusup, the head of the group, had “fled abroad” after being put on a wanted list for making explosives.

Chinese authorities were searching for him “in cooperation with” Interpol, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Pakistan link

Many Chinese officials believe ETIM leaders are hiding out in Pakistan, in areas bordering Afghanistan. Xinjiang officials have previously blamed a number of attacks in the cities of Kashgar and Hotan, which are close to the border with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), on groups with “a thousand links” to Pakistan.

Beijing has, however, been careful to refrain from publicly voicing its displeasure with Pakistan considering their close “all-weather” strategic ties.

Xinjiang has also recently seen intermittent ethnic clashes between Uighurs and the increasing number of majority Han Chinese migrants in the region, most notably in 2009 when riots left at least 197 people killed and more than a thousand injured in Urumqi.

The nation must deepen ties with India: ex-envoy

Staff writer, with CNA, New Delhi

A former envoy to India has suggested deepening ties with New Delhi to capitalize on the nation’s existing friendship with India’s incoming ruling party, which swept to a landslide victory in general elections over the weekend.
Taiwan and India should work to beef up the intensity and depth of their relations now that the groundwork for exchanges has been laid, Ong Wen-chyi (翁文琪) told the Central News Agency in a recent interview.
Ong, who was the nation’s representative to India from 2008 to 2012 and now serves as chairman of Chunghwa Post, made his appeal after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to victory in India’s parliamentary election on Sunday.
The victory will usher in a new government led by prime minister-elect Narendra Modi.
In urging the government to take action, Ong criticized it for not showing sufficient commitment to closer bilateral ties, in contrast to India, which has shown considerable interest in cooperation.
“Compared with India, how much effort has Taiwan made [on cooperation]?” Ong asked, citing frequent visits to Taiwan by officials from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
Given the recent anti-China riots in Vietnam, “perhaps we should consider whether India should play a greater role [in the nation’s economy],” said Ong, who helped the state of Gujarat, governed by Modi since 2001, solicit investment from Taiwan-based China Steel Corp.
The nation’s ties with the BJP date back almost seven years ago when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), then a presidential candidate, visited BJP President Rajnath Singh in June 2007. Singh called the meeting with Ma historic.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Hsia (夏立言), Ong’s predecessor as representative to India, met with Modi at an international meeting on the shipping industry in Gujarat in September 2007.
During their meeting, Modi lauded the nation’s expertise in hardware and said that with India’s strength in software, the two sides should cooperate closely like “body and soul.”
Modi visited Taiwan in November 1999 when he was a general-secretary of his party.
Economic cooperation with India has warmed up in recent years, with the two signing an agreement to avoid double taxation in 2001 and another for mutual assistance in customs matters in July 2011.
In March last year, the two nations signed an agreement allowing temporary duty-free admission of products and equipment, usually for exhibition purposes, to boost trade and business exchanges.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ ... 2003590798

The United States, accusing China of vast business spying, charged five military officials on Monday with hacking into US companies to steal vital trade secrets in a case intensifying already-rising tensions between the international economic giants.

The Chinese targeted big-name American makers of nuclear and solar technology, stealing confidential business information, sensitive trade secrets and internal communications for competitive advantage, according to a grand jury indictment that the Justice Department said should be a national "wake-up callR" about cyber intrusions.

A company's success in the international marketplace should not be based "on a sponsor government's ability to spy and steal business secrets," Attorney General Eric Holder declared at a news conference.

The alleged targets were Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric Co., Allegheny Technologies, US Steel Corp., the United Steelworkers Union and SolarWorld. The indictment, which includes charges of trade-secret theft and economic espionage, was issued in Pittsburgh, where most of the companies are based.

China denied it all. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the charges were based on "fabricated facts" and would jeopardize China-US "cooperation and mutual trust."

"China is steadfast in upholding cybersecurity," said the statement. "The Chinese government, the Chinese military and their relevant personnel have never engaged or participated in cybertheft of trade secrets. The US accusation against Chinese personnel is purely ungrounded and absurd."

In a further move late Monday, China announced it was suspending cooperation with the US in a joint cybersecurity working group and warned of further retaliation "as the situation evolves."

The working group was established in April 2013 following the publication of allegations of spying by the Chinese military and held its first meeting last July.

The announcement from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang posted to the ministry's website also sought to turn the spying allegations on the US "China is a victim of severe US cyber theft, wiretapping and surveillance activities," Qin said.

Monday's prosecution was announced on the heels of a separate worldwide operation over the weekend that resulted in the arrests of 97 people in 16 countries who are suspected of developing, distributing or using malicious software called BlackShades. Holder said the two cases illustrate an increased emphasis on cyber threats.

The charges underscore a longtime Obama administration goal to prosecute state-sponsored cyberthreats, which US officials say they have grappled with for years. One government report said more than 40 Pentagon weapons programs and nearly 30 other defense technologies have been compromised by cyber intrusions from China. The cybersecurity firm Mandiant issued a report last year alleging links between a secret Chinese military unit and years of cyberattacks against US companies.

The new indictment attempts to distinguish spying for national security purposes - which the US admits doing - from economic espionage intended to gain commercial advantage for private companies or industries, which the US denies it does. Classified documents disclosed by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden have described aggressive US efforts to eavesdrop on foreign communications that would be illegal in those countries.

Unlike in some countries, there are no nationalized US industries. American officials have flatly denied that the government spies on foreign companies and then hands over commercially valuable information to US companies. In China, though, many companies are state owned, particularly those that supply the military.

"These five people were just doing their jobs. It's just that we object to what their jobs are," said Mark Rasch, a former US cybercrimes prosecutor. "We have tens of thousa ..

The indictment says that hackers, officers with the China's People's Liberation Army, stole proprietary information from the companies and the labor union, including design specification for Westinghouse pipes and pricing and strategy information from SolarWorld. Working from a building in Shanghai, prosecutors say, the hackers in some cases gained access to computer networks by sending emails to company employees that looked authentic but that actually contained a link to malicious code.

The defendants are all believed to be in China and it was unclear whether any might ever be turned over to the US for prosecution. But the Justice Department, publicizing the charges, identified all five by name and issued "wanted" posters.

"For the first time, we are exposing the faces and names behind the keyboards in Shanghai used to steal from American businesses," said John Carlin, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

US officials have previously asserted that China's army and other China-based hackers have launched computer attacks on American industrial and military targets, often to steal secrets or intellectual property. The Chinese say that actually they are the ones who face a major threat from hackers, and the country's military is believed to be among the biggest targets of the NSA and US Cyber Command.

The new indictment will put a greater strain on the US-China relationship and could provo ..

"What we can expect to happen is for the Chinese government to indict individuals in the United States who they will accuse of hacking into computers there," said Rasch, the cybersecurity expert. "Everybody now is going to jump into the act, using their own criminal laws to go after what other countries are doing."

In recent months, Washington has been increasingly critical of what it describes as provocative Chinese actions in pursuit of territorial claims in disputed seas in East Asia. Beijing complains that the Obama administration's attempt to redirect its foreign policy toward Asia after a decade of war in the Middle East is emboldening China's neighbors and causing tension.

"If we were trying to make things smoother in this region, this isn't going to help," said Richard Bejtlich, chief secu ..

Despite the ominous-sounding allegations, at least one of the firms minimized the hacking. Monica Orbe, Alcoa's director of corporate affairs, said the company believed no sensitive data had been compromised. A spokesperson for SolarWorld, which has long accused China of unfair trade practices, said the company was troubled by the allegations but that no customer information was breached.

Last September, President Barack Obama discussed cybersecurity issues on the sidelines of a summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"China not only does not support hacking but also opposes it," Premier Li Keqiang said last year in a news conference when asked if China would stop hacking US websites. "Let's not point fingers at each other without evidence, but do more to safeguard cyber security."

China has warned the United States that it would retaliate if Washington presses on with charges against five Chinese military officers accused of hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets, state media said on Tuesday.

The warning from an unnamed State Internet Information Office spokesman came hours after the United States charged the five Chinese, accusing them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets.

It was the first criminal hacking charge that the United States has filed against specific foreign officials, and follows a steady increase in public criticism and private confrontation, including at a summit last year between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The indictment is likely to further roil relations between China and the United States. Besides cyber hacking, Washington and Beijing have grappled over a range of issues, including human rights, trade disputes and China's growing military assertiveness over seas contested with its neighbors.

"If the United States continues to insist on going its own way, China will take measures to resolutely fight back," the spokesman told state news agency Xinhua and the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

He did not elaborate on the measures that China will take. It is unclear if China could use its financial clout to retaliate against the United States. China is the United States' biggest foreign creditor. As of February, China held $1.27 trillion in US Treasury bonds, according to Treasury Department data.

China's Foreign Ministry immediately denied the charges on Monday, saying in a strongly worded statement the US indictment was "made up" and would damage trust between the two nations

The ministry said it would suspend the activities of a Sino-US working group on cyber issues, which American officials believe refers to a joint effort established in April 2013 involving State Department expert Chris Painter and China Foreign Ministry official Dai Bing.

CHINA'S COUNTER-ACCUSATION

The spokesman from the State Internet Information Office was quoted by Xinhua as saying that the United States "attacks, infiltrates and taps Chinese networks belonging to governments, institutions, enterprises, universities and major communication backbone networks".

"Those activities target Chinese leaders, ordinary citizens and anyone with a mobile phone," Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying.

"China has repeatedly asked the US to stop, but it never makes any statement on its wiretaps, nor does it desist, not to mention apologise to the Chinese people."

Xinhua cited data from China's top Internet security agency, the National Computer network Emergency Response technical Team Coordination Center (CNCERT), which said a total of 2,077 Trojan horse networks or botnet servers in the United States directly controlled 1.18 million host computers in China during the period from March 19 to May 18.

The CNCERT found 135 host computers in the United States carrying 563 phishing pages targeting Chinese websites that led to 14,000 phishing operations. The centre also found 2,016 IP addresses in the United States had implanted backdoors in 1,754 Chinese websites, involving 57,000 backdoor attacks, during the same period.

China has long singled out the United States as the top source of intrusion on its computers and says it is a victim of cyber attacks {like how Pakistan is}.

Russia is intensifying its shift towards China as Russia’s relations with the West have sunk to their post-Cold War low over the Ukraine crisis.

China has refused to condemn Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea and has adopted what experts called “positive neutrality” over the conflict.

Putin’s China visit

The two countries are expected to sign a “fantastic package” of more than 40 agreements when President Vladimir Putin travels to Shanghai on Tuesday for a two-day state visit and participation in a regional security summit.

Mr. Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will oversee the start of joint war games in a sign of closer defence ties between the two countries. At least 16 Russian and Chinese warships will train together in the East China Sea, where China is locked in a bitter territorial dispute with Japan.

Russia and China will undertake eight “strategic projects” in space, rocket engines, aviation and infrastructure, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced after talks in Beijing ahead of Mr. Putin’s visit.

Experts said Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine are pushing Moscow towards military alliance with Beijing.

“While de jure military alliance between Russia and China is unlikely, de facto elements of such an alliance are shaping up,” said Prof. Segrei Luzyanin of the Moscow Institute of International Relations.

Mr. Putin said relations between Russia and China are at their all-time best.

“Establishing closer ties with the People’s Republic of China — our trusted friend — is Russia's unconditional foreign policy priority,” the Russian leader said in an interview to Chinese media.

During Mr. Putin’s visit, Russia and China are expected to sign a commercial agreement for the export of 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year at $350-$380 per 1,000 cubic metres, according to Izvestia daily. The deal will mark a strategic shift for Russian energy exports to Asia and cut Russia’s dependence on the European market.

Energy alliance

Noting that Russia already supplies oil to China under a $60-billion deal, Mr. Putin said that the two countries “are steadily advancing towards building a strategic energy alliance.”

Before leaving Moscow for Shanghai, Mr. Putin issued an intriguing statement on Ukraine apparently designed to ease Russia’s standoff with the West.

The Russian leader said he “welcomes the first contacts between Kiev and supporters of federalisation aimed at launching direct dialogue” between the two sides, according to the Kremlin.

There has been no information about official contacts between Ukrainian authorities and the rebels, and the first two “national unity” roundtables organised by Kiev were held without representatives of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Mr. Putin also said he had ordered Russian troops which had been exercising near Ukrainian borders to return to barracks.

In a sign that Kiev may after all begin talking to the rebels, Mr. Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call on Monday “voiced the hope that the process of constitutional reform and Kiev authorities’ dialogue with the regions” will be continued.

A Chinese government thinktank has welcomed prime minister-designate Narendra Modi as "India's Nixon" who would hugely expand business with China. It also described Modi's approach towards governance as "very close to Chinese practices".

In 1972, US president Richard Nixon's visit to the Communist nation was dubbed as "the week that changed the world" and had significant geopolitical ramifications that included a shift in the Cold War balance, bringing China and the US together.

Chinese government expert with the Shanghai Institute for International Practices, Liu Zongyi, contesting fears in some Chinese quarters that Modi could be autocratic, said, "As a right-winger in Indian politics, Modi is more likely to become India's 'Nixon' who will further propel the China-India relationship... Modi's governance style and philosophy are very close to Chinese practices."

Nixon is still admired in China for breaking the deadlock between the two countries in the 1970s.

"The opposition to the BJP holds this view (that Modi could be autocratic) out of the need for partisan competition, while as for Western critics, their attack on Modi is out of ideological concerns, because Modi's governance style and philosophy are very close to Chinese practices," Liu wrote in the Communist Party mouth piece, Global Times.

He added that Modi "needs a peaceful and stable neighborhood to facilitate domestic economic development" and fulfill his promise of making India self-reliant and strong.

Liu was also critical of Modi's description as "India's Shinzo Abe", Japanese prime minister who was said to be Asian in his outlook but took an aggressive stance on China over territorial disputes.

"Modi is unlikely to act as vehemently as Abe, as it would be of no benefit to India's economy," Liu said, referring to Sino-Indian border dispute.

Pointing out Modi's emphasis on 'Hinduness' during the election campaign, and that he possibly may have fanned religious conflicts, Liu said, "Modi's conception of Hindutva also underscores 'India is great simply by being India'." But, the BJP, Liu said, has changed, and is now focused on development.

"The narrow-minded and extreme nationalist stand of the BJP has changed and the major task facing Modi is to create a stable domestic and neighboring environment to revive the ailing economy," he added.

Modi as Gujarat CM has thrice been to China, the last time in September 2011, and his government signed a Rs 400 crore MoU with a Chinese firm for setting up high voltage transformers and reactors' plant near Vadodara.

Another government expert, Hu Shisheng, had recently said Modi might take an aggressive stance on the border issue and try to use the Dalai Lama to bargain with China. Both were commenting on Modi's statement in Arunachal Pradesh advising China to give up its expansionist attitude.

Liu said, "Modi's conception of Hindutva also underscores 'India is great simply by being India'."

Chinese government expert with the Shanghai Institute for International Practices, Liu Zongyi, contesting fears in some Chinese quarters that Modi could be autocratic, said, "As a right-winger in Indian politics, Modi is more likely to become India's 'Nixon' who will further propel the China-India relationship... Modi's governance style and philosophy are very close to Chinese practices."

Liu was also critical of Modi's description as "India's Shinzo Abe", Japanese prime minister who was said to be Asian in his outlook but took an aggressive stance on China over territorial disputes.

"Modi is unlikely to act as vehemently as Abe, as it would be of no benefit to India's economy," Liu said, referring to Sino-Indian border dispute.

asprinzl wrote:Regardless one likes it or not, the most important country in India's foreign policy agenda is China. For better or worse, India and China are locked together as neighbors. The Chinese see Modi for who he is. In their history, they have rolled the red carpet to very few leaders. They have never rolled the red carpet all the way to the plane. Not even for any of the Pakis. But they did for Modi even while he was not the PM.
He is not a push over. India and China should build a strong friendship and connect it to Russia thus forming a global behemoth unrivaled by any other grouping or alliance. The geography is already the. Some form of spirit is already there or the oil pipeline from Russia to India via China would not have been broached. For this India needs a strong leader. Modi seems to be filling that.

Slowly - but surely - the USD's hegemony is being chipped away whether by foreign policy faux pas, crossed red-lines, or economic fragility. However, on Day 1 of Vladimir Putin's trip to China it is clear that the two nations are as close as ever. VTB - among Russia's largest banks - has signed a deal with Bank of China to pay each other in domestic currencies, bypassing the need for US Dollars for "investment banking, inter-bank lending, trade finance and capital-markets transactions." Kirill Dmitriyev the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund notes, "together it’ll be possible to discuss investment in various projects much more efficiently and clearly," as Russia's pivot to Asia continues to gather steam.

panduranghari wrote:

asprinzl wrote:Regardless one likes it or not, the most important country in India's foreign policy agenda is China. For better or worse, India and China are locked together as neighbors. The Chinese see Modi for who he is. In their history, they have rolled the red carpet to very few leaders. They have never rolled the red carpet all the way to the plane. Not even for any of the Pakis. But they did for Modi even while he was not the PM.
He is not a push over. India and China should build a strong friendship and connect it to Russia thus forming a global behemoth unrivaled by any other grouping or alliance. The geography is already the. Some form of spirit is already there or the oil pipeline from Russia to India via China would not have been broached. For this India needs a strong leader. Modi seems to be filling that.

Absolutely.

Slowly - but surely - the USD's hegemony is being chipped away whether by foreign policy faux pas, crossed red-lines, or economic fragility. However, on Day 1 of Vladimir Putin's trip to China it is clear that the two nations are as close as ever. VTB - among Russia's largest banks - has signed a deal with Bank of China to pay each other in domestic currencies, bypassing the need for US Dollars for "investment banking, inter-bank lending, trade finance and capital-markets transactions." Kirill Dmitriyev the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund notes, "together it’ll be possible to discuss investment in various projects much more efficiently and clearly," as Russia's pivot to Asia continues to gather steam.

€$¥£Re

A currency swap between India-China-Russia would be in the best interest of all three.
1.no wars
2.independence from Middle Eastern oil
3.elimination of EJ and JeeHard activity by isolation of west and Middle East.
4.between these 3 nations, the economic output will be many times the rest of the world put together.

panduranghari wrote:

asprinzl wrote:Regardless one likes it or not, the most important country in India's foreign policy agenda is China. For better or worse, India and China are locked together as neighbors. The Chinese see Modi for who he is. In their history, they have rolled the red carpet to very few leaders. They have never rolled the red carpet all the way to the plane. Not even for any of the Pakis. But they did for Modi even while he was not the PM.
He is not a push over. India and China should build a strong friendship and connect it to Russia thus forming a global behemoth unrivaled by any other grouping or alliance. The geography is already the. Some form of spirit is already there or the oil pipeline from Russia to India via China would not have been broached. For this India needs a strong leader. Modi seems to be filling that.

Absolutely.

Slowly - but surely - the USD's hegemony is being chipped away whether by foreign policy faux pas, crossed red-lines, or economic fragility. However, on Day 1 of Vladimir Putin's trip to China it is clear that the two nations are as close as ever. VTB - among Russia's largest banks - has signed a deal with Bank of China to pay each other in domestic currencies, bypassing the need for US Dollars for "investment banking, inter-bank lending, trade finance and capital-markets transactions." Kirill Dmitriyev the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund notes, "together it’ll be possible to discuss investment in various projects much more efficiently and clearly," as Russia's pivot to Asia continues to gather steam.

€$¥£Re

A currency swap between India-China-Russia would be in the best interest of all three.
1.no wars
2.independence from Middle Eastern oil
3.elimination of EJ and JeeHard activity by isolation of west and Middle East.
4.between these 3 nations, the economic output will be many times the rest of the world put together.

Several former U.S. officials who remain engaged in Japanese affairs have urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet to reinterpret the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defense by the time the regular Diet session ends on June 22.

The group included former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell. He and the others held talks in Washington on Tuesday with lawmakers Katsuyuki Kawai, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Kenji Nakanishi, policy chief of the opposition Your Party.

Campbell said it is important to demonstrate that the United States and Japan are united, given East Asia’s changing security environment, Kawai said, citing Campbell. Kawai is a former chairman of the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Kawai added that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he fully supports Japan making a Cabinet decision by that time.

And Michael Green, former senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, said during a meeting with the lawmakers Monday that it is important to secure a Cabinet decision before the end of the Diet session, Kawai said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to change the interpretation of Japan’s Constitution in order to lift the country’s self-imposed ban on exercising its right of collective self-defense, which would allow the Self-Defense Forces to help allies under attack.

Kawai told a press conference after Monday’s talks with the U.S. experts he now believes the LDP and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, should wrap up discussions on collective self-defense and make a Cabinet decision on reinterpreting the Constitution by the end of the Diet session.

He said he will report the meetings to Abe upon return to Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak met in Tokyo on Wednesday, their third meeting in a year, in the hopes of deepening economic and security cooperation between their two countries.

Najib arrived in Japan on Wednesday for a two-day working visit, during which he will attend the International Conference on the Future of Asia, organized by the Nikkei financial newspaper. He is set to deliver the keynote address at the conference on Thursday.

Najib also said he and Abe reaffirmed “the importance of maintaining peace and stability in South China Sea,” and agreed that all international issues should be dealt with based on international law.

Abe said he spoke to Najib about the recent decision to ease Japan’s self-imposed restrictions on military technology exports, and his ongoing drive to change the government interpretation of the constitution to allow Japan to use the right to collective self-defense.

Abe claimed those moves are “part of efforts for pro-active contribution to peace, based on principle of international cooperation.”

Abe has spoken about his security policy changes in most of his recent meeting with foreign leaders, trying to win their official support for the moves.

In doing so, he may be seeking to ease international concern over his reputation as a nationalistic hawk and gain momentum in domestic politics to push for security policy changes that have at times met with controversy.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito remain out of step as they hold coalition talks in an attempt to bridge key differences on how to deal with perceived shortcomings in Japan’s defense policies.

The biggest difference between the ruling parties is how to interpret war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution. LDP Vice President Masahiko Komura, who chairs the coalition talks, said the minimum necessary standard of the Constitution that allows Japan to defend itself should also allow the country to exert the right to collective self-defense.

But New Komeito Vice President Kazuo Kitagawa disagreed.

“Komura emphasizes legal-theory aspects (in interpreting) Article 9 but we are not in tune yet . . . There needs to be legal consistency with the interpretation of the Constitution by past governments,” Kitagawa, who serves as the deputy chairman of the coalition talks, said on Tuesday at the Japan National Press Club.

He also repeated New Komeito’s general position that most of the scenarios the government has proposed can be dealt with under the individual self-defense and policing authority by the Japan Coast Guard and the Self-Defense Forces.

“We have to paint realistic scenarios and we need to discuss if there exist any shortcomings in laws before deciding whether or not to reinterpret the Constitution,” Kitagawa said.

New Komeito, which is backed by lay Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, is especially concerned there is no mechanism to prevent Japan from overusing the right to collective self-defense.

The report by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s handpicked panel on the issue set a condition that Japan should be able to wield the right only when Japan’s security is likely to be gravely harmed.

Gen Nakatani, an LDP member of the coalition talks, also said on a Tuesday television program that the Diet will serve as the brake, as the report calls for requiring Diet approval should Japan seek to come to the defense of other nations. But Kitagawa said the checks proposed by the panel’s report are insufficient.

The coalition bloc on Tuesday formally agreed that their negotiations will first deal with how to more effectively counter so-called gray zone incidents that fall short of full-fledged military attacks, and then move on to Japan’s upgraded role in peacekeeping operations and the issue of collective self-defense.

But the two parties differ even in terms of the approach they want to take in the discussions.

LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba said that the coalition must reach one agreement to cover all three areas in order to seek Cabinet approval by summer. But Kigatawa said the coalition should have ample time to discuss the issues before reaching a separate agreement on each issue before preparing related bills to rectify loopholes in Japan’s defense posture, which would require much more time than the LDP may wish.

The parties also differ in terms of how crucial they believe the Article 9 issue is to Japan-U.S. defense cooperation. Abe has positioned the issue of collective self-defense as crucial to the Japan-US alliance, especially as both countries are slated to revise guidelines for bilateral defense cooperation by the end of the year.

But Kitagawa said that he believes what the United States wants Japan is provide more logistical support both in bilateral operations and peacekeeping operations, rather than collective self-defense.

Since enacting a peacekeeping law in 1992, Japan has provided logistics for such operations only under the strict condition that they do not directly involve the use of force and are limited to “non-combat zones.” As such, Japan cannot refuel U.S. aircraft after takeoff or use arms to defend another country’s military involved in peacekeeping operations, unless they are under the aegis of the SDF.

However, New Komeito said at a meeting on Tuesday that Japan should expand its peacekeeping responsibilities, especially with regard to the use of weapons, as the current law is too restrictive.

China’s president called Tuesday for the creation of a new Asian structure for security cooperation based on a regional group that includes Russia and Iran and excludes the U.S.

President Xi Jinping spoke at a meeting in Shanghai of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building measures in Asia (CICA), an obscure group that has taken on significance as Beijing tries to extend its influence and limit the role of the United States.

“We need to innovate our security cooperation (and) establish new regional security cooperation architecture,” said Xi, speaking to a group of leaders that included Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Xi made no mention of Beijing’s conflict with Vietnam over the deployment of a Chinese oil rig in a disputed portion of the South China Sea.

CICA, whose 24 member nations also include Korea, Thailand and Turkey, should become a “security dialogue and cooperation platform” and should “establish a defense consultation mechanism,” Xi said. He said it should create a “security response center” for major emergencies.

The proposal is the latest effort by Beijing to build up groups of Asian or developing governments to offset the influence of the U.S. and other Western governments in global affairs.

In 2001, it founded the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Russia and four Central Asia nations to counterbalance rising American influence in the region and to combat Islamic and separatist political movements.

Beijing sees common cause with other CICA members such as Russia and Sri Lanka in promoting a political model that pairs autocratic government with a market-oriented economy in defiance of the Western liberal democratic model. Japan, seen by Beijing as a strategic rival, is an observer.

The group is unlikely to produce a real security alliance, said Ross Babbage, chairman of Australia’s Kokoda Foundation, a security think tank.

“Alliances are not based on a piece of paper. They’re the result of real trust and interaction,” he said. “There may be some agreements ahead, but in reality, I don’t see an alliance emerging.”

BEIJING - The bombing of a civilian market in Xinjiang represents a shift in tactics by militants towards more spectacular attacks, analysts say, to invite a disproportionate response by China and so radicalise the Muslim Uighur homeland.

At least 31 people were killed and more than 90 wounded when assailants threw explosives and ploughed two off-road vehicles through a crowd in the regional capital Urumqi on Thursday. The vast, resource-rich region which was rocked by inter-ethnic riots that killed around 200 people in 2009, is regularly hit by violent flare-ups between Chinese authorities and the mainly Muslim Uighur minority.

But the latest incident was notable for its scale, technique and explicit targeting of civilians, experts told AFP. "In the past in Xinjiang, you had individuals targeting government officials and police," said Michael Clarke, a professor at Griffith University in Brisbane who has authored a book on Beijing's policy in the region. "Now, it seems to have made the shift to a much more indiscriminate attack, the model of a classic terror attack.

"It's a very large attack in the middle of the regional capital," Clarke said, adding that it had "a different level of sophistication" to previous incidents and took place in a neighbourhood mostly populated by Han Chinese, the country's ethnic majority.

Many of those killed and wounded were elderly residents doing their daily shopping. The White House called it a "horrific terrorist attack" which Chinese state broadcaster CCTV seized on as the first time that Washington has used such a label for an incident within Xinjiang's borders. It comes just weeks after a stabbing spree and explosion at an Urumqi railway station left two assailants and a civilian dead and 79 people wounded.

Other high-profile attacks elsewhere in China over the past year have also been blamed by authorities on separatists from Xinjiang. A mass stabbing at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming killed 29 people and wounded 143 in March. Last October, three family members from Xinjiang died when they drove a car into crowds of tourists at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing two people before the vehicle burst into flames.

Gardner Bovingdon, a noted Xinjiang scholar at Indiana University, said that Beijing maintains a tight grip on information and little is known about the perpetrators of such acts or their motivations. But the attacks could suggest a "politique du pire" strategy, he said a move by militants to provoke a harsher crackdown in Xinjiang, thus radicalising more Uighurs and making it easier to recruit people to their cause.

"If we think these folks are playing a long game, the calculation might be, 'We commit violence now, the state cracks down, Uighurs become angry and more Uighurs join in,'" said Bovingdon, who has been barred by authorities from visiting Xinjiang for more than a decade. "I think it's the same calculation for Palestinians who do bombings," he added "A small number of people who have committed on the path of violence do things that will come back to affect most of the population."

China's Communist Party has long attributed attacks in Xinjiang to overseas-based terror groups, including the Turkestan Islamic Party and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Most scholars remain sceptical of those claims; however, with some arguing that Beijing exaggerates the threat posed by such groups to justify its hardline measures. Xinjiang's tensions are instead triggered by cultural and religious repression as well as resentment that economic development has mostly benefited an influx of ethnic Han, they say.

China's Global Times newspaper, which is close to the ruling party and normally, takes a nationalistic tone, acknowledged in an editorialon Friday that "policy errors in the course of history partly contributed to the current plight". In Washington senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Mr Christopher Johnson said that more liberal government policies were hardly likely in the near term.

But he added "Sooner or later, I think they have to kind of come to that reality, because the evidence is just smacking them in the face." Uighur militants in Xinjiang are potentially becoming more influenced by the tactics of other Islamist groups in the wider region, said Clarke, but added "the deeper issue concerns wider Uighur society".

"Why are we seeing a greater radicalisation in fringe elements?" He asked, pointing to the arrest in January of Ilham Tohti, a Uighur academic who has criticised Beijing's policies in Xinjiang but is known as a moderate. Tohti has been charged with separatism, which can carry the death penalty. "He never called for the independence of Xinjiang," Clarke said. "If a moderate voice such as that has been very much quashed, then in a sense there is no avenue to legitimate manifestation of grievances."

CHIRAN: China, Russia, Iran (and possibly some -stans). Likes: Internet censorship. Dislikes: Activist artists.

JAPANDIA: Japan and India. Likes: Renewed national pride, curry leaf-based sauces. Dislikes: China’s muscle-flexing, US lapdog jokes.

PHILNAMBODIA: Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia (and potentially Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand as well). Likes: UN maritime law. Dislikes: China’s nine-dash line.

Asia’s “odd couple” has been holding joint military drills and signing economic agreements for years, but Narendra Modi’s election as India’s new prime minister could usher in an era of complementary nationalism. Modi’s home state of Gujarat already has close ties with Japanese business, and talks are underway about a Modi state visit to Japan, where he could ink the foreign investment deals that India desperately needs. Modi is one of only three people Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe follows on Twitter, Reuters reports, and Modi responded effusively after Abe’s congratulations over the election results.