Leon Panetta warned that the latest escalation over islands disputed by China and Japan could lead to war—even as he arrived in Tokyo to inaugurate a new anti-missile system.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda signed a resolution describing South Korea’s control of disputed islands in the Sea of Japan as an “illegal occupation.”
The 67th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender saw a confrontation with Chinese activists over the contested Senkaku Islands in the oil-rich East China Sea.
A protest campaign on Okinawa has won a commitment from the Pentagon and Japanese government to delay deployment of Osprey aircraft to the island pending further study.
A Japanese expert panel issued a report finding that the Fukushima nuclear disaster was preventable—giving a boost to more than 1,300 plaintiffs who have filed suit against the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Mass protests greeted Hu Jintao in Hong Kong as he swore in a new chief executive for the territory. Demonstrators demanded an investigation into last month’s suspicious death of 1989 Tiananmen Square protester Li Wangyang.
After six weeks without generating any nuclear power, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda this week succeeded in lobbying local authorities in Fukui prefecture to approve the restart of two reactors at the Ohi nuclear complex, raising the specter of widespread power… Read more“March for Life” from Fukushima to Hiroshima, as Japan revives reactors
Former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan told the current government to abandon nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, comparing the nuclear industry’s hold on society to that of the Imperial military during World War II.
Tokyo’s notoriously nationalist governor Shintaro Ishihara is pushing a plan for the metropolitan government to purchase and annex the China-claimed Senkaku Islands in the hydrocarbon-rich East China Sea—without consulting local Okinawa officials.
The official US hand-wringing is all for public consumption. On June 4, 1989, China’s rulers proved to the world that they were willing to slaughter their own citizens in the interests of “stability.” They were rewarded with massive investment.
The New York/Hong Kong-based Human Rights in China reports that You Minglei, an independent activist in Nanchang, was arrested on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” after distributing leaflets.
Blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng succeeded in escaping from house arrest in a rural area of China’s Shandong province. From an unknown location, he issued a YouTube appeal to Premier Wen Jiabao.
