China - US candid dialogue aims at easing anxiety

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China-U.S. annual dialogue opens, President Xi gives speech

The sixth round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue has opened here in Beijing. The two-day ...

The sixth round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the fifth China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange are being held in Beijing these two days. At a time when this bilateral relationship remains subtle and both have speculated about each other's strategic outlook, such high-level dialogue offers a chance for them to listen to their counterparts to ease anxieties brought by problems between them.

The strategists and public opinion in both countries have made thorough analyses of bilateral ties, yet they still fail to offer grounded conclusions. The fundamental reason is that in the history of international politics, such a big power relationship has never existed before.

The Chinese leadership envisioned the notion of a new type of great power relations, which the US leadership has accepted. The positive attitude of both has injected hope to the 21st century.

There will be more friction between the two. There will be twists and turns as China rises and the US tries to maintain its hegemony. Both can easily highlight a concrete problem, while high-level dialogue is needed to ease the speculation in both societies.

China's rise seems to be the most uncertain factor for the Sino-US relationship and the political pattern of the Asia-Pacific region in the 21st century. A comprehensive understanding of China's rise will help lay the foundation of this bilateral relationship.

The driving forces of China's rise come from the demand of the Chinese people. No one can stop this process. China and the US should build up an open system that can accommodate China's rise and soften the impact of China's rise on the politics of Asia-Pacific and other regions.

Many view the territorial disputes between China and its neighboring countries as its ambition for expansion. The US should be able to see that China has no intention to create new geopolitical patterns through these disputes, nor would it make use of the conflicts to expand its strategic space.

Even when China has no intention, its impact has been felt. Meanwhile, US support for Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam has caused some effect on China's neighbors. These two factors should not interact with each other to intensify mutual strategic mistrust.

The significance of the heart-to-heart dialogue is the same as that of establishing a crisis-management mechanism. It may take a while before the two realize great power relations, but China-US relations are fundamentally different from ties between the US and the former Soviet Union.

There will be continuing pessimistic comments from the public in both countries. It is vital that both governments remain determined. It will be a significant political achievement if the two develop a relationship that is different from the one under the Yalta system during the last century.

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-7-9

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Attitude to the war matters

[2014-07-08 07:27] History is the best textbook. That is what President Xi Jinping said at the ceremony to mark the 77th anniversary of the Chinese People's War Against Japanese Aggression on Monday.

Watch Japan's surrender Video; Beware of Japan's evil designs!

China publishes video of Japan´s surrender for first time

Beware of Japan's evil designs

The volatile political situation in Europe (and partly in West Asia) led to the Great War 100 years ago, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany (or the Central Forces) on one side and Britain, France and Russia (or the Allies) on the other. What started essentially as a "European war" soon turned into a world war with the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joining the Central Forces and Italy, the United States and Japan joining the Allies.

The international situation today is radically different from what it was 100 years ago. Regional conflicts do exist, but there is no conflict between two major powers or blocs that seems unlikely to be resolved through talks. The main contradictions and conflicts today are the ones between the sole superpower, the US, and emerging powers like China and Russia. Despite the comparative decline in its power, the US is not willing to yield its self-perceived sphere of influence to China or Russia. But despite being uncomfortable with the idea of seeing a powerful China, the US has agreed to establish a "new type of major-power relationship" with China.

China is surrounded by complicated maritime disputes with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines, but these countries seem to be acting on the instigation of the US, and are not in a position to engage in a large-scale military conflict or war with China. In fact, these countries' attitude toward China depends on the direction Sino-US relations take.

About 120 years ago, Japan launched an aggressive war against China, which ended in the collapse of the Chinese navy and the signing of the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki, which forced the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) rulers to cede some of China's territories and pay reparations to Japan. The main reason China suffered such a fiasco was that, as a weakening feudal country, it was not prepared to fight an asymmetrical war with an emerging capitalist power.

China, along with the rest of the world, has undergone considerable changes since then. Today China is the world's second-largest economy and one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Despite that - and despite possessing nuclear weapons - China is still a peace-loving nation striving to build a harmonious world.

After being defeated in World War II, Japan has had to follow a pacifist Constitution, written with the help of Allies, mainly the US. And coupled with the economic downturn since the 1980s and the international community's stipulation that allows it to only develop its Self-Defense Forces - as opposed to a full-fledged military - Japan today is in a position that is totally different from the late 19th century.

Yet Japan has taken a dangerous step toward militarization by reinterpreting Article 9 of the Constitution. Since the move allows Japan to dispatch troops overseas to take part in "conflicts", it should be seen as a warning not only to China but also to the international community as a whole.

With the peaceful rise of China and escalation of Sino-Japanese disputes, Japan has begun shifting its strategic focus southwestward. A series of military moves by Tokyo in recent years, such as the deployment of missiles on its southernmost island, Miyako-jima, which is closest to China's Diaoyu Islands and the stationing of the most advanced missiles on the southern tip of Kyushu Island, indicate that Japan's military policy is targeted mainly at China.

Japan also plans to build military bases on Miyako-jima, Amami-shima and Ishigaki-jima, its three southern islands nearest to the Diaoyu Islands, and deploy outpost forces there. During a recent visit to Miyako-jima, a senior Japanese defense official told local officials that "the local defense vacuum" should be filled in.

Japan's military maneuvers in Miyako-jima, some 2,000 kilometers from Tokyo but only about 200 km from China's Taiwan, are obviously aimed at strengthening its military might to counter China, especially over the Sino-Japanese maritime disputes. This is how a recent Russian TV program summed up the situation.

Japan has also set up a joint land-, air-and sea-based monitoring system over various straits. For example, every time a Chinese ship crosses the Tsugaru Strait, it will be under surveillance of Japanese warships, helicopters and P-3C aircraft.

While deploying its armed forces in its southwestern region, Japan has unashamedly presented a different face to the international community. For example, it has repeatedly complained that "China's warplanes dangerously approach Japan's (planes) " and that "China's warships lock their fire control radar at Japan's (ships) ", to seek sympathy of the international community. By beefing up forces using the "China threat" theory, Japan has exposed its ulterior motive, that is, it is preparing for a possible war with China, even though such a war is not likely to break out.

Given the complicated international security situation, China should remain vigilant against Japan's military designs and continue its efforts to achieve peaceful sustainable development and build a harmonious world in a bid to play a bigger role on the global stage.

By Li Daguang (China Daily)/Asia News Network
The author is a professor at the National Defense University, People's Liberation Army.

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AT A GLANCE Deals signed during Angela Merkel’s China visit • Volkswagen aims to establish two plants in Qingdao and Tianjin with an investment of $2.7 billion. • Airbus Group will sell 123 helicopters to Chinese companies for general aviation. • Air China and Lufthansa are in talks that could lead the German and Chinese carriers to form a revenue-sharing joint venture. • The two countries are planning a joint pilot project concerning Passive House, an energy-efficient method of construction, in Qingdao. • China will take part as a partner country in the 2015 CeBIT, the world’s leading expo for information technology, in Hanover.

China and Germany will strengthen exchanges in the financial sector and upgrade longstanding cooperation in manufacturing with a slew of deals signed on Monday.

Beijing will grant Berlin an 80 billion yuan ($12.9 billion) quota under the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors plan to accelerate the internationalization of the Chinese currency, reinforcing Frankfurt's status as a yuan clearing center in Europe, in addition to London and Paris.

A high-level financial dialogue will also be set up to boost financial cooperation, Premier Li Keqiang said at a news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

President Xi Jinping told Merkel during their meeting, "The series of agreements you have signed during your visit to China will bring new impetus to bilateral ties."

Xi suggests the two countries take bigger steps in their cooperation, with manufacturing industry as the core.

Merkel said Germany would improve its investment environment and attract more Chinese investors.

She is accompanied by a high-profile business delegation including executives from Siemens, Volkswagen, Airbus, Luft-hansa and Deutsche Bank.

Apart from the financial deal, the countries also signed deals on automobiles, aviation and telecommunications.

China approved London joining the RQFII plan in October, granting investors the right to use the yuan to buy up to 80 billion yuan worth of mainland stocks, bonds and money market instruments.

It later granted Paris the same quota in March.

Luxembourg is also lobbying Beijing for the same treatment after it signed an agreement with China's central bank for yuan clearing arrangements on June 28.

Li Jianjun, a financial analyst at Bank of China's International Finance Research Institute, said the competition for offshore yuan centers among major European cities is a healthy feature of cooperation.

"The renminbi is still at the initial stage of internationalization. We are expanding the offshore yuan pie and setting up a global network with overseas financial markets. Allowing qualified foreign institutional investors to use the yuan will benefit China and other countries," Li said.

Chinese leaders are likely to take Frankfurt as a core center for renminbi clearing services in continental Europe, while establishing secondary yuan clearing sites in Paris and Luxembourg, Li said.

"We cannot cover a wide range and a large amount of renminbi-related businesses with only one center," Li said. "With Frankfurt as a leading offshore yuan-trading city, we will create a nice layout for renminbi internationalization in Europe."

In the first five months of 2014, Germany's direct investment in China reached $810 million, or 30 percent of the $2.69 billion investment in China by all members of the EU, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In 2013, two-way trade between the countries reached $161 billion, taking up almost one-third of total China-EU trade.

China is Germany's largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

Merkel's visit, her seventh trip to China, came only four months after the last meeting between leaders of the two nations. President Xi Jinping visited Germany in March.

Before flying to Beijing, Merkel stopped at Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

Merkel said she felt the dynamics and development of southwestern China in Chengdu, where urbanization is urgently needed to catch up with coastal cities.

"China's vigor stays not only on the coastline but also in the central and west area," she said.

Sebastian Heilmann, president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, said in a recent interview with Deutsche Welle: "Germany provides China with products it needs for industrialization, for example ,machines, specialty chemicals and electronic goods. On the other hand, Chinese consumer goods with very reasonable prices are in high demand in Germany."

Ren Baiming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce, said Germany, as well as the European Union at large, need a driving force from the outside for growth, and the fast-growing Chinese market meets that need.

Wu Jiao contributed to this story. - By ZHAO YINAN and JIANG XUEQING (China Daily)
/Asia News Network

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Today July 7, remembering Japanese atrocities: China marks 77th anniversary of anti-Japan war 1937

http://www.cngongji.cn/english/

A grand gathering is held to mark the 77th anniversary of the beginning of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions at the Museum of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions in Beijing, capital of China, July 7, 2014. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

China marks 77th anniversary of start of anti-Japan war

July 7 incident: String of events leading up to 1937 fight

Next Monday marks the 77th anniversary of the July 7 incident, or the "Lugou Bridge Incident&qu...A grand gathering is held to mark the 77th anniversary of beginning of Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressions in Beijing, July 7, 2014.

July 7 is an anniversary that should be remembered by both Chinese and Japanese.

Seventy-seven years ago, at Lugou Bridge, known as Marco Polo Bridge to the Western people, Japanese troops attacked Chinese defenders in the nearby fortress town of Wanping, marking the beginning of the eight-year Anti-Japanese War.

Civilians were killed by gunfire, bombs, gas and biological weapons; women were raped; forced laborers were tortured to death.

It was a devastating tragedy not only for China, but also for Japanese people.

Ignoring objections from peace lovers at home, warmongering fascists initiated the war, leaving Japanese soldiers to shed their blood away from their motherland and women and children deserted back home. Those people who provoked the war marked their own country with humiliation in history.

What's more, 77 years later, the Japanese government still fails to introspect on what it did in the past and cherish the current peace.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet endorsed a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense, the latest move in challenging the international bottom line. A Japanese person even set himself alight in protest.

From the slapstick of the "nationalization" of China's Diaoyu Islands by the former Japanese government, to Abe's ridiculous visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and to the pacifist Constitution reinterpretation, right-wingers in Japan have initiated a series of provocations.

War is hell, but there are always devils who try to spark war and trample peace under foot.

Born in an island country with limited natural resources, Japanese people are respected for their diligence and energy-saving awareness. However, there are always a small number of people who attempt to loot the resources of other countries by way of invasion, bringing catastrophe to neighbors including the Korean Peninsula, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and China.

Decades have passed. With the common efforts of government leaders and civilians who cherish peace, China and Japan have greatly strengthened economic ties and cultural exchanges by putting hatred behind them. But some in Japan are now always trying to disturb the international postwar order by ignoring history, something no peace lover in either country wants to see.

China has a deep-rooted culture of seeking peace and expects the Abe government to stop its provocations. Otherwise, they will have to take their medicine.

Japan frays nerves of neighboring countries



For the Chinese people, July 7, 1937 was a day when one of their worst nightmares began, as it marked the beginning of the eight-year-long China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese empire, where many reckless militarist policies were born, invaded China and some Southeast Asian countries, causing huge pain to Asian people.

Seventy-seven years later, the psychological wounds of the Chinese people have not been fully healed, as Japanese rightists have repeatedly denied its atrocities of the aggression and taken a provocative approach in addressing ties with its neighboring countries.

Even worse, these wounds are once again touched recently as the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 1 approved a resolution that would allow the country to exercise the so-called "collective self-defense right" by reinterpreting its pacifist Constitution, despite strong protests from home and abroad.

According to the war-renouncing Article 9 of the country's Constitution, Japan has been banned to exercise the right to collective self-defense after World War II due to its heinous war crimes to Asian countries.

However, the resolution would enable Tokyo to fight for "countries with close ties" with Japan even though Japan itself is not under attack, which signals that the Japanese government has shifted its previous restrictive postwar security policy to a more proactive one.

It is by no means the first time that the Abe's administration irritates its neighbors and stirs up regional tensions by adopting provocative policies.

In recent years, Tokyo has tried hard to strengthen its military buildup and seek military expansion amid festering historical and territorial disputes with neighboring countries, including the attempt to revise its national defense policy in late December last year.

Right-wing Japanese politicians have repeatedly watered down Japan's history of aggression and visited the notorious Yasukuni Shrine that honors the country's war criminals, which has further alarmed regional countries including China and South Korea.

The Japanese government has played up hard the so-called China-threat theory, and dressed up itself as a victim of Beijing's peaceful development, paving the way for the country to develop its self-defense forces.

However, what Abe has done is equivalent to playing with fire, as he is leading his country down a dangerous path.

As a relatively small island country with scarce natural resources, it is really unwise for Japan to engage in big-power geopolitics and aggressions against its neighbors.

As the provoker and defeated country of the World War II, Japan should learn from the lessons of the wars and give up its attempt for better warships and missiles as its recklessness would affect Asia as a whole.

Beijing always tries to develop a strategic partnership of mutual benefits with its neighboring country, but a dangerous Tokyo has wasted many precious chances to build sound bilateral ties amid its endless provocations.

As one of the important players in Asia and on world arena, it is high time for Japan to face up to its aggression in history and pursue the path of peaceful development instead of angering the region with rounds and rounds of irresponsible words and provocative policies.

Sources: China Daily/Asia News Network

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S. Korea - China ties at best in history

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Xi's visit a new dawn for China-ROK ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) could be the beginning of a new era in China-ROK relations.

Agreements reached during his visit include deals for the launch of RMB clearance in Seoul, political and security cooperation, and expanded people-to-people exchanges.

The visit has plotted a clear course for the future of relations, according to Wang Fan of the China Foreign Affairs University.

ECONOMIC COOPERATION

"Many issues that had been idling were discussed, with solid results," said Wang.

On Thursday, China and ROK agreed on direct trading between the RMB and won, the ROK currency, and signed a deal on renminbi (RMB) clearing in Seoul. Eliminating the need to exchange through U.S. dollars will save on transaction fees and hedge against foreign exchange volatility.

Beijing and Seoul also agreed to try to conclude FTA negotiations before the end of this year.

"The positive attitude to a free trade agreement will set a good example for other countries in East Asia," said Wang. Once established, the agreement will contribute to the progress of a China-Japan-ROK FTA and economic integration.

While the achievements in currency and trade are a natural result of increased economic exchange, Wang believes they were facilitated by Xi's visit.

China is already the ROK's largest trading partner and largest market for Korean exports, while ROK is China's third most important trading partner and was the fifth biggest source of foreign investment in 2013. Two-way trade totaled 274 billion U.S. dollars last year, and the leaders have promised a rise to 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2015.

TRUST AND REGIONAL STABILITY

Thursday's joint statement declared denuclearization and peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula to be in the common interests of all countries involved in the six-party talks.

The six-party talks, involving China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Japan, the ROK, Russia, and the U.S. have been suspended since late 2008.

Xi told Park that China and ROK should become partners that share common development, commit to regional peace and Asia's revitalization, and boost world prosperity. Beijing and Seoul share an unavoidable responsibility to maintain regional tranquility.

PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGE

Both sides will celebrate the Year of Chinese Tourism in ROK in 2015 and the Year of South Korean Tourism in China in 2016 and elevate personnel exchanges to 10 million in 2016.

The two sides reached a consensus on waiving visas for service passport holders and decided to gradually expand visa-free coverage.

"People-to-people exchanges are already in a very good phase," said Wang. "These measures ensure the exchange will be continued."

Chinese and South Koreans made a record 8.22 million trips to each other's countries last year. More than 60,000 Chinese students are studying in ROK, which has the same number of students in China.

The two countries also pledged cooperation in such areas as public diplomacy, culture, film production, panda research, protection of cultural heritage and hosting sports events.

"These agreements create a favorable atmosphere for deepening mutual understanding between the two nations," said Wang. - Xinhua

Xi's South Korea trip hailed for boosting ties

Commentators laud prospects of an enhanced bilateral relationship.

President Xi Jinping's just-concluded two-day visit to South Korea has boosted ties and contributed to regional peace and stability, analysts say.

Kim Han-kwon, director of the Center for China Studies at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in South Korea, said Xi's visit has deepened the two countries' cooperation in such fields as security, economics and culture.

"It is a boost not only to the political trust between leaders of the two countries but also to the friendship between the two peoples," he said.

The director called on both nations to maximize their common core interests, put aside differences and seek common ground.

Cha Jae-bok, a researcher with the Northeast Asian History Foundation of South Korea, said Xi's visit is of great significance to relations, and especially economic ties.

During the visit, the two sides signed a deal on establishing arrangements for the Chinese yuan's clearance in Seoul and agreed to push for the completion of negotiations on a free-trade agreement by year-end.

Those decisions will boost South Korea's financial markets and promote the process of economic integration among Asian countries, Cha said.

Shin Seong-ho, associate dean of the Office of International Affairs at Seoul National University, said Xi's speech at his university gave a broad and in-depth blueprint of the development of Asia and the whole world, rather than solely focusing on South Korea-China ties.

Kyung Hee University professor Ha Young-ae said the visit has bolstered South Korean public confidence in ties.

Japanese political commentator Jiro Honzawa said Xi's visit could serve to contain Japan's right wing. The deepening of ties could help safeguard peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and all of East Asia, he said.

His views were shared by Qian Feng, vice-director of Thailand's Chinese-language newspaper Asian Daily.

"The two heads of state reached consensus on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which laid a foundation for regional stability," he said.

During his South Korea visit on Thursday and Friday, Xi met with a number of South Korean leaders and politicians, and the two sides confirmed over 90 cooperation programs covering 23 fields.

Source: China Daily/Asia News Network

Australian 'racist rant woman'; AUD goes down under

Australian police have charged a woman for racially abusing passengers on a train after a video recording her tirade was posted online and went viral, sparking a social media backlash.

The 55-year-old, named by Australian media as Karen Bailey, was arrested late Thursday after allegedly launching an expletive-filled rant at young children and an Asian woman during a Sydney train journey.

New South Wales police said she was charged with offensive language and will appear in court later this month.

Bailey started to scream at two children aged seven and 10 after she boarded the train, telling their mother to "getting your fucking bogan children off the seat", the mother, Jade Marr, told the Newcastle Herald.

"It was unbelievable to think somebody would say those things and act like that," Marr said.

The Australian slang term "bogan" roughly translates as "trashy".

Bailey then turned her attention to other passengers as they filmed her outburst, telling a man beside an Asian woman that "he can't even get a regular girlfriend, he's got to get a gook".

The term gook is a disparaging term to describe Asians. Bailey also mocked the Asian woman's accent and pulled back her eyes to ridicule her features.

The video, which was posted on YouTube by a passenger on Wednesday, had been viewed more than 250,000 times by Friday morning and attracted almost 1,000 comments.

Most of the comments criticised Bailey for her outburst, although several were supportive of her remarks.

Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said on Twitter that "there is no excuse for acts of racial insult, humiliation and intimidation".

"When confronted with such conduct, everyone should consider a response, including reporting it to a relevant authority," he wrote.

Bailey told media group Ninemsn she was having a "really, really rotten day" and "it's awful what I said to that woman, I do agree".

"There's no excuse to rant at people like that," she said. "It's awful and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, regardless of any race."

Bailey initially gave her name as Sue Wilkins to passengers and some media outlets once the video of her rant went viral.

The incident came two years after a French-speaking woman singing on a Melbourne bus was told by a man to "speak English or die" in another video posted on the Internet that went viral.

Two Chinese students were burned, beaten and racially abused on a Sydney train in the same year, sparking an uproar on China's social media sites.

Source: AFP

Australian dollar goes down under
  
Currency in biggest drop since January

Stevens: 'Most measurements would say it is overvalued, and not just by a few cents' - Bloomberg

CANBERRA: Glenn Stevens’ renewed jawboning of the Aussie pushed it toward the biggest two-day drop since January as the central bank governor said investors were underestimating chances of a significant fall in the currency.

“Most measurements would say it is overvalued, and not just by a few cents,” Stevens said in the text of a speech delivered in Hobart.

“We think that investors are underestimating the likelihood of a significant fall in the Australian dollar at some point.”

The Aussie - which has traded as high as about US$1.11 and as low as 77 US cents in the past five years - fell 0.8% on Wednesday, continuing a retreat from an almost eight-month high.

The elevated currency has impeded efforts to stimulate non-mining areas of the economy with record-low interest rates.

“The speech represents the start of a new journey down the road of jawboning,” Stephen Walters, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s chief economist in Australia, wrote in a note. “The gap between AUD and commodity prices remains unusually wide, so the new adventures of jawboning likely will continue.”

Walters said he expects the RBA will hold the benchmark cash rate steady at 2.5 % for at least another year, “but remain of the view that a rate cut in the near term remains more likely than a hike.”

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its benchmark steady for an 11th month on July 1 and flagged a period of steady borrowing costs.

“Investors in their search for yield and in the very low volatility world that we presently live in where people think that the risk of anything going wrong seems to have completely gone away, I think that’s over optimistic,” Stevens said in response to a question on the currency yesterday.

“And I think part of those are underestimation of the likelihood of the Aussie going down at some point, and possibly quite materially.”

The Australian dollar had gained almost 8% since the RBA moved to a neutral bias in February this year.

It traded at 93.68 US cents at 4:48 pm in Sydney, from 94.30 cents before Stevens’ speech was released.

The comments onthe Aussie are “clear jawboning,” said Sue Trinh, a senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. “His comments were taken as noticeably more dovish than what the market was geared up for.”

Stevens said language in recent statements about stability of interest rates was intended to clarify that the central bank did not think a higher benchmark was imminent.

“Overall, I judge that language to have served its intended purpose,” he said.

“Present market pricing suggests that market participants expect interest rates to remain low for some time yet.”

Changes in language should be expected to continue over time as more information becomes available, he said.

Long before any rate increase is considered the board would probably “revert to the more normal formulation that the stable policy settings ‘remained appropriate’ or something like that,” he said.

— Bloomberg

Japanese World War II criminals' confessions released

1. 
   

   Video: Japanese World War II criminals' confessions released

   After the end of World War Two, when Japanese war criminals were apprehended and interrogated, they wrote confessions.
   
   

   More documents decoded to reveal Japan´s war crimes

   

   An archive bureau in northeast China is drawing together experts to decode a vast number of document...

   
    BEIJING, July 3 -- Confessions made by 45 Japanese war criminals tried and convicted by military tribunals in China after World War II (WWII) were published online on Thursday.
   
   Handwritten confessions, along with Chinese translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, have been published on the website of the State Archives Administration, said the administration's deputy director Li Minghua at a press conference on Thursday.
   
   "These archives are hard evidence of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese imperialism against the Chinese," Li said.
   
   "Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, disregarding historical justice and human conscience, has been openly talking black into white, misleading the public, and beautifying Japanese aggression and its colonial history since he took office," Li told reporters.
   
   "This challenges WWII achievements and the post-WWII international order.
   
   "The administration has made them available online before the 77th anniversary of the July 7 incident to remember history, take history as a mirror, cherish peace... and prevent the replay of such a historical tragedy," Li added.
   
   The July 7 incident, or the Lugouqiao Incident, in 1937 marked the beginning of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which lasted eight years.

China began publishing "confessions" of 45 convicted Japanese World War II criminals on Thursday, officials said, in Beijing's latest effort to highlight the past amid a territorial dispute between the two.

• PHOTOS

This file photo shows a man looking at a painting depicting civilians fleeing Shanghai during the war, at the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing. (AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN)

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BEIJING: China began publishing "confessions" of 45 convicted Japanese World War II criminals on Thursday, officials said, in Beijing's latest effort to highlight the past amid a territorial dispute between the two.

The documents, handwritten by Japanese tried and convicted by military courts in China after the war, are being released one a day for 45 days by the State Archives Administration (SAA), it said in a statement on its website.

In the first, dated 1954 and 38 pages long, Keiku Suzuki, described as a lieutenant general and commander of Japan's 117th Division, admitted ordering a Colonel Taisuke to "burn down the houses of about 800 households and slaughter 1,000 Chinese peasants in a mop-up operation" in the Tangshan area, according to the official translation.

Among a litany of other crimes with a total toll in the thousands, he also confessed that he "cruelly killed 235 Chinese peasants seeking refuge in a village near Lujiayu".

He also "ordered the Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Squad to spread cholera virus in three or four villages".

The document, which is littered with descriptions of "Japanese imperialists", appeared to have been written by someone with native-level command of Japanese, said one Japanese journalist who saw it.

However, some of the sentences were very long and contained multiple clauses, possibly indicating it had gone through several drafts.

It was not clear whether Suzuki's or the other yet-to-be-published confessions -- all of them relating to 45 war criminals put on trial in China in 1956 -- were previously publicly available.

Suzuki was held by Soviet forces at the end of the conflict and transferred to Chinese custody in 1950, earlier Chinese documents said, adding that he was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the court and released in 1963.

The publication of the confessions comes as Tokyo and Beijing are at odds over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea, and as Beijing has argued that a reinterpretation of Japan's pacifist constitution could open the door to remilitarisation of a country it considers insufficiently penitent for its actions in World War II.

China regularly accuses Japan of failing to face up to its history of aggression in Asia, criticism that has intensified since the democratic re-election in December 2012 of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has advocated a more muscular defence and foreign policy stance.

China was outraged in December last year when Abe visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where the souls of Japan's war dead, including several high-level officials executed for war crimes after World War II, are enshrined.

"These archives are hard evidence of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese imperialism against the Chinese," the SAA's deputy director Li Minghua was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, disregarding historical justice and human conscience, has been openly talking black into white, misleading the public, and beautifying Japanese aggression and its colonial history since he took office," Li said.

The SAA said the documents were being released to mark the 77th anniversary Monday of the Marco Polo Bridge incident, a clash between Chinese and Japanese troops near Beijing, commemorated as the start of what is known in China as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which ended with Tokyo's World War II defeat in 1945.

- AFP/xq/Channel News Asia

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Japan's move escalates regional tension, signals fascism emergence: foreign experts

Foreign analysts and scholars have harshly criticized a resolution passed by the Japanese cabinet on Monday to allow it a larger military role in Asia, saying it will escalates regional tensions and is a sign of fascism emergence.

The resolution, which allows Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense by reinterpreting the pacifist Constitution, greenlights Japan to take military action to defend other countries even though the nation itself is not under attack, marking a major overhaul from Japan' s postwar security policy.

"Japan is changing," warned Shada Islam, the director of Brussels-based Policy, Friends of Europe in a written interview with Xinhua.

The move is part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to transform Japan into a "normal country" when it comes to defence and security, said Islam, adding that he has also pushed through a law to strengthen control of state secrets, created American-style National Security Council, and lifted Japan' s self-imposed restriction on exporting weapons.

Abe's so-called "proactive pacifism" is clearly not popular at home and he has had to abandon his original plan to secure direct constitutional revision -- but this move should reassure the United States that Japan is taking on some responsibility for its own defence, she said.

Public opinion in Japan will continue to act as a brake on some of the Abe's more ambitious plans, so Abe will have to carefully balance his policies, she said, adding that the resolution "will certainly not enhance security and could increase tensions in northeast Asia."

It is absurd for Japan to allows collective self-defense, said Enes Begicevic, a journalist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that Japan's move will lead to regional instability.

"This constitutional change is both historic and worrying as it moves one of the pillars which has maintained the balance of peace in East Asia since the end of the Second World War," said Augusto Soto, professor of ESADE institution of Ramon Llull University and Director of Dialogue with China Project.

This measure could have the effect of destabilizing Asia and the Pacific and this is understood by an important part of public opinion in Japan which is against the Abe administration. However, this opinion does not have the political power to stop the Japanese government's initiative, he said.

In the face of this situation China could launch a political offensive in order to try and convince Japanese public opinion that the announced measure goes against Japanese interests, he advised.

"The new interpretation of the constitution that Japan's cabinet has adopted now may do little good to the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region," Angel Maestro, a Spanish columnist of the Financial World and a expert on asian affairs.

Japan's neighbors may worry this is the sign of a new rise of the fascism in Japan's Political Arena. These countries may strengthen their defense forces as insurance against the possibility that Japan has chosen an expansionist foreign policy as it did during the Second World War, which would raise tensions in the region and escalate conflicts that already exist, he said.

"I think it may increase the historical mistrust that Japan already faces from its neighboring countries, especially China and Korea, about its military intentions," said Piin-Fen Kok, Director of China, East Asia and United States Program with the EastWest Institute.

It' s up to Japan to explain clearly to its neighbors why it is doing this, and why this is good for regional and global security. Japan also needs to provide assurances to its neighbors that it will not revert to its militaristic past, Kok said.

"Collective self-defense is a compromise born from Shinzo Abe's political will, who leads a group of people that don't represent the mainstream of Japanese politics," Professor Axel Berkofsky, senior associate research fellow of Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) has told Xinhua.

"It is funny to say that Japan should regain the respect of the world. It was just saying: It's a weak commitment, a political move, a dream, a vision of Abe himself," he added.

- Xinhua (Editor:Wang Xin、Huang Jin)

Japan’s removal of ban on collective self-defense stirs international unease

The Japanese cabinet has approved a resolution that would allow the country to exercise the right of collective self-defense by reinterpreting the Pacifist Constitution.

The resolution sets three conditions that would enable exercise of the right including "clear danger" to the lives of its people due to armed attacks on Japan or "countries with close ties".

The move is an overhaul of Japan’s exclusively defense-oriented security policy after World War II and over half of Japanese are against it.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that China is opposed to Japan's pursuit of its domestic political goals by deliberately inventing a "China threat", and urged Japan to respect the legitimate security concerns of its Asian neighbors and deal prudently with relevant issues. He said that Japan must not undermine China's sovereignty and security interests, nor should it harm regional peace and stability.

Japan’s removal of the ban on collective self-defense comes at a time of strained Sino-Japan relations, said Yuan Yang, a researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences of PLA. According to Yuan, China’s rapid economic and military development is the motive behind Japan’s move to constrain China.

Yuan Yang believes that lifting the ban on collective defense would ease certain restrictions on the Japanese military forces and might lead to gradual expansion of its military capability.

Yuan points out that Japan’s emphasis on "countries with close ties", rather than confining itself to its allies, increases the possibility of conflict between China and Japan. There is now the possibiltiy that the two countries might clash over issues related to third parties as well as the Diaoyu Island issue and other issues in the East China Sea.

Zhou Yongsheng, a professor with the China Foreign Affairs University, has also noted that the most serious consequence of removing the ban on collective self-defense might be a military alliance betweeen Japan and countries like the Philippines and Vietnam.

Faced with this situation, China needs to show the world that with peaceful development as its basic state policy, it will never pose any threat to other countries. It should try to unite all peace-loving forces, especially peace forces in Japan, to prevent these Japanese government moves. But China also needs to make it clear to the world that with its own strengthened military forces, it has nothing to fear from the provocative actions of other countries. - (People's Daily Online)

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