BREAKING: Japan frees captain of Chinese boat: reports

[Maximilian Chua-Heng]

As above.

Ramseth must be happy like a bird.

 

[huahero]

警告后日本害怕loh...

Japan to release Chinese boat captain

(AP) – 18 minutes ago

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors say they will release the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel involved in a collision near disputed islands.

The incident has raised tensions with China, which demanded Tokyo release the captain.

China is investigating four Japanese suspected of illegally filming military targets and entering a military zone without authorization, state media reported amid a tense diplomatic spat between Beijing and Tokyo over a fishing boat collision near disputed islands.

The company that employs the four men said they were doing research about chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese military during World War II in order to bid on a clean-up project.

China's state-run Xinhua News Agency cited state security authorities in the northern city of Shijiazhuang as saying they had "taken measures" against the four Japanese "after receiving a report about their illegal activities." There was no elaboration.

The authorities accuse the Japanese of entering a military zone without authorization in Hebei province, the capital of which is Shijiazhuang.

The brief report late Thursday night did not say whether the four Japanese are in detention.

Fujita Corp., a Tokyo-based construction and urban redevelopment company, identified the four men as Yoshiro Sasaki, 44, Hiroshi Hashimoto, 39, Sadamu Takahashi, 57 and Junichi Iguchi, 59, and said they were employees.

At a press briefing, Fujita spokesman Tatsuro Tsuchiya said the company has not been able to contact the men since receiving a one-word text message from Takahashi on Tuesday morning that read "Help."

"We hope that they will be released quickly," Tsuchiya told reporters.

The company said in a faxed statement the men traveled to Hebei province on Sept. 20 to gather information about the area, and were working to prepare a bid for a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military during World War II.

Fujita said the company was also unable to reach a Chinese employee, Ji Yinsheng, who had been working with the group.

Japan's Foreign Ministry confirmed it had received word from the Chinese government Thursday night about the incident. It did not have further details, including whether the men had been arrested or merely questioned.

The news could further sour relations that have deteriorated badly since earlier this month when Japan arrested a Chinese captain whose fishing boat collided with Japanese coast guard vessels near a string of islands in the East China Sea. Called Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, the islands are controlled by Japan, but are also claimed by China. They are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are regularly occupied by nationalists from both sides.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told reporters Friday the government does not believe the four men's situation is connected to the island dispute.

Japan extended the detention of the Chinese captain Sunday, and Beijing reacted quickly, suspending high-level contacts with Tokyo and ruling out a meeting between Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan during U.N. meetings in New York this week.

On Tuesday, Wen threatened "further action" against Japan if it did not release the Chinese captain immediately.

Meanwhile, the United States on Thursday urged the two powers to quickly resolve the dispute and a military official said Washington was committed to strongly supporting Japan, one of America's closest allies in the Pacific.

At a Pentagon news conference, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said the U.S. was tracking the situation closely and hoped that diplomatic efforts would ease tensions soon.

"And obviously we're very, very strongly in support of ... our ally in that region, Japan," Mullen told reporters.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates added "and we would fulfill our alliance responsibilities," without offering more specifics.

But besides hoping that tensions ease between China and Japan, Mullen said "we haven't seen anything that would, I guess, raise the alarm levels higher than that."

The dispute faces a test on Sept. 29, the deadline by which Japanese prosecutors must decide whether to charge the Chinese captain. Fourteen crew members and the boat have been returned.

 

[Ramseth]

I have a friend who's Lta. in PLA, Guangdong provincial division. He told me PLA has about 2.5 m. regulars. NS is still legally compulsory but usually after first reporting they'd tell the enlistee to go home, never to be bothered with NS or reservist anymore. The better ones would be invited to sign on as regular. For if every man passing physical fitness is enlisted, China would have an army of more than 300 m. And of course, China has about 200 nukes within the range of Japan.

 

[cheowyonglee]

Long Live China!! Long Live Communism!!


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although i dun support mao and communist, but i still have to give some credit to the communist for preventing china from becoming weak again.

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我不亲共!!! I am a Han Chinese!!!

 

[cheowyonglee]

大陆的中国人，太弯的中国人，全球的中国人，是时后我们站起来团结的时候了。

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[cheowyonglee]

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i am not pro communist.but pro chinese!!!

 

[cheowyonglee]

中國人不是好惹的!!!

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[longbow]

China has the upper hand. It has the huge market that Japan needs as is supplying the $$ to buy Japanese debt. Any economic retaliation will hit Japan more than China.

US, Japan's masters, also need the Chinese. In terms of debt financing as well as their war on terror. Remember that Afghanistan shares common border with China and as such Chinese probabaly has a whole bunch of intelligence. Of course China controls North Korea and is good pals aiwth pakistan. US pisses of the Chinese and you start seeing NK test another bomb and Pakistan become less willing to cooperate

 

[Ramseth]

China has the upper hand. It has the huge market that Japan needs as is supplying the $$ to buy Japanese debt. Any economic retaliation will hit Japan more than China.

US, Japan's masters, also need the Chinese. In terms of debt financing as well as their war on terror. Remember that Afghanistan shares common border with China and as such Chinese probabaly has a whole bunch of intelligence. Of course China controls North Korea and is good pals aiwth pakistan. US pisses of the Chinese and you start seeing NK test another bomb and Pakistan become less willing to cooperate

NK succession of leadership also must consult and get the blessing from PRC. Sometimes PRC just tells NK to fire a few missiles into sea and the whole Far East rocks all shook up.

 

[annexa]

That time when our dear leader visit taiwan, China knn gave some weapons to mudland. And dear leader kena the pisai remark from taiwan.

 

[spotter542]

Nowadays Commie China has the upperhand in terms of trade and military prowess
Even the Americans are wary not to step on the dragon's tail.
Japan will retaliate by filming more PRCs in their SM adult video after this incident

 

[myo539]

China has the upper hand. It has the huge market that Japan needs as is supplying the $$ to buy Japanese debt. Any economic retaliation will hit Japan more than China.

US, Japan's masters, also need the Chinese. In terms of debt financing as well as their war on terror. Remember that Afghanistan shares common border with China and as such Chinese probabaly has a whole bunch of intelligence. Of course China controls North Korea and is good pals aiwth pakistan. US pisses of the Chinese and you start seeing NK test another bomb and Pakistan become less willing to cooperate

MM Lee's strategy of containing China is supreme!. He tells the Chinese openly that it's good to have US in Southeast Asia to counter the growth of China's might, less the Chinese becomes stronger and starts to throw their weight around in the Paracels and Spratelys.

 

[longbow]

To be fair to Singapore, we have to play this US vs China game.

Given the rise of China the only country that can contain China militarily is the US. However, given US budget deficit, US will only resort to faceoff with China over esstential issues, war on terror, Israel, Middle East Oil.

Economy wise, the China will become increasingly powerful. US per capita about $40K with pop of 300M.

If China had 20% of pop with US per capita that is 280M - pretty much as much buying power as USA. So even though China will remain poor, they will still have that 20 to 30 percent of pop with US level prosperity - that is enough to make it a consumption superpower.

All the exporting nations, Germany, Japan, South Korea will have to kowtow because they want to export to China.

This is what we have seen over the Japan-China boat captain issue. When China showed their color by having their PM bring up the issue (I can imagine Chinese officials giving japanese the ultimatum at UN meeting), the Japanese have no choice but to backdown. I can imagine the Chairmans of Toyota, Nissan, sony, matsushita - all calling their politicians to backdown.

US probably told Japan to backdown. With so many wars, huge economic crisis, and deficit, the last thing is a confrontation with the Chinese in their backyard over what is a Japanese/Chinese issue.

So never just look at military power but also economic power.

 

[ivebert]

Japanese have lost their samurai spirit after so many years of eating US dog food

If this shit happened in 1940s, China will lose a few province, which is still possible now but Japan just lack the courage

 

[longbow]

What is this thing about rare earth metal issue that the Chinese can use??


Japan’s economy may be hurt by its political dispute with China, Economy Minister Banri Kaieda said today, signaling widening concern at the consequences of tensions with the nation’s biggest trading partner.

“Given that our growth strategy has been to incorporate Asian demand into our own demand, the current rare-earth, rare-metal problem that has been reported in the press is becoming a very big obstacle,” Kaieda told reporters in Tokyo today. “I hope for the earliest possible resolution to this problem.”

Kaieda spoke after a spat erupted this month over Japan’s detention of a fishing-boat captain. The Chinese sailor was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese Coast Guard vessels.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said separately that there’s no confirmation of a Chinese embargo on so- called rare-earth elements. The New York Times reported yesterday that it put an embargo on exports of the products, which are used in items including cars and weapons, to Japan. Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chen Rongkai said yesterday that “China does not have a trade embargo on rare earth exports to Japan.”

A deterioration in the relationship between China and Japan would be negative for the global economy as a whole, Japan’s finance minister, Yoshihiko Noda, told reporters in Tokyo today.

 

[yellowarse]

What is this thing about rare earth metal issue that the Chinese can use??

What’s in Your Cell Phone?
By Melissa Hincha-Ownby
September 6, 2010
Beyond a cluster of circuitry, cell phones contain a number of reusable precious metals and elements.

Do you know what’s in your cell phone? No, not the megapixels of the camera or the gigabytes of hard drive storage space — what is actually inside the cell phone — the circuit boards, the wires, etc. A bevy of chemicals, metals and the like go into making your cell phone. Some of the products used to produce the cell phone come from a section of the periodic table that contains 15 rare earth elements known as the lanthanides.

Without getting too technical, these rare earth elements are believed to be in somewhat limited supply, with the bulk of them located in China. Until the last decade or so, there wasn’t much concern with the world’s supply of lanthanides. However, there is increasing demand for these 15 rare earth elements as new clean energy technologies emerge. This includes advances in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, energy-efficient lighting like CFLs and even wind turbines. Rare earth elements are also being used in high-tech consumer electronics, like your cell phone.

So, now more companies around the world need more lanthanides to meet consumers’ demand for electronics. However, there is a limited supply of these elements and exporting them is costly. Companies are going to need to find other sources for lanthanides, and this is where the concept of urban mining emerges.

Urban mining is a great concept — e-waste is recycled and the precious metals are removed, refined and reused. This keeps toxic e-waste out of landfills and reduces our dependence on expensive-to-import metals. This includes the rare earth elements used in the high-tech industry like neodymium, europium, yttrium, cerium and terbium.

The process of extracting rare earth elements from cell phones is not as refined as the process used to remove gold, silver, copper and the like. However, companies around the world realize the importance of harvesting lanthanides from existing electronic products and are working to advance this technology. Harvesting these rare earth elements through recycling also prevents them from seeping into the ground and possibly causing problems for humans, animals and the environment.

Although neodymium can be toxic if inhaled in the working environment, the biggest toxicity concern comes when the element is allowed to accumulate in the body. If neodymium builds up in your body, it could be toxic to your liver. The more electronic waste that makes its way to landfills, the higher ground levels we will see. As is the case with all ground-contaminating products, it is only a matter of time before it makes its way into the human body. Recycling electronics can prevent this process.

To learn more about urban mining and the rare earth elements, read “A ‘Gold Mine’ of Precious Metals in Discarded Electronic Devices.” In this article, Masao Yamada with Dowa Holdings and Yasuharu Yanai with Kosaka Smelting explain how their company is expanding their urban mining operation. Next time you’re ready to upgrade to a new cell phone, recycle your old phone so these rare earth elements can be extracted for future use.