The first one refers to recent tensions over the East China Sea.

[Diaoyu Islands belong to which country?] Answer: Bring a laptop computer there. If you can open Twitter, they belong to Japan. If you can’t open Twitter, they belong to China!
【钓鱼岛属于哪个国家？】答：带台电脑去钓鱼岛，如果能打开twitter就属于日本，打不开就属于中国！

The second one references a recent order that homes, temples and schools in Tibet must display portraits of China’s leaders.

Cadres went from house to house to ask: Have you hung all the leaders [portraits]? They all answer: Hung, we hung them all!*

* The word 挂 (gua) literally means to hang, but is also online slang for “dead.” So the double-entendre is: “The leaders are all dead!”
干部挨家挨户问：领导人都挂了吗？那边答：挂了，都挂了！

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Post tags: diaoyu islands, jokes, political satire
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The following is a list of terms that are prohibited for use in Xinhua News Agency news reports. The list was first published in 2008.

Terms prohibited in news reports (first group)

1. Prohibited societal and daily life terms

A. Terms prohibited for people with disabilities include “lame,” “cyclops,” “a blind,” “a deaf,” “idiot,” “fool,” “retarded,” and other derogatory titles. Instead use “disabled person,” “blind person,” “deaf person,” “intellectually challenged person,” and other such terms.

B. When reporting the fact, especially when reporting on products and commercial products, don’t use “optimum,” “the best,” “the most famous,” or other strongly judgmental or colorful terms.

C. Reports on medicine cannot contain “the most effective treatment,” “complete cure,” “safe prevention,” “safe and without side effects,” and other such terms. Reports on medical products cannot contain “thoroughly eliminate the illness,” “money back guarantee,” “insurance company insured,” “the latest technology,” “the best technology,” “the most advanced method,” “the king of medicine,” “the country’s newest medicine,” and other such terms.

D. For artistic personalities, do not use “king of the screen,” “movie queen,” “super star,” “king,” or other such terms.

E. For reports on the activities of leaders and cadres of any level, do not use “personally” or other such adjectives.

F. As the national news agency, Xinhua News Agency reports should not use “wow,” “damn,” and other such slang, jargon or dirty language. If using this language in a quote is unavoidable, use bracketed annotation to express the intended meaning. The abbreviations of dirty language that have been used online in recent years, such as “SB,” TMD,” and “NB,” cannot be used in news reports.

2. Prohibited legal terms

A. The true identity of those involved in the following situations are not suitable to be revealed in news reports: (1) the family members of those suspected of a crime; (2) minors involved in cases; (3) the wives and children of those involved in a case, (4) those who have used artificial insemination and other forms of assisted childbirth; (5) those suffering from severe contagious diseases; (6) those suffering from mental illness; (7) those who have been violently forced to work in the sex trade; (8) those suffering from AIDS; (9) those with drug-use history or those who were forced to quit using drugs. When these people are involved in these situations, the news report can use a surname but add “mou” (so-and-so) in place of the person’s given name. For example “Zhang Mou” or “Li Mou.” It is not suitable to use a fake name.

B. For parties involved in criminal cases, before the court has read a guilty verdict, do not use “criminal.” Instead use “criminal suspect.”

C. In civil and administrative cases, the plaintiff’s and defendant’s legal standings are the same. The plaintiff can sue the defendant and the defendant can counter-sue the plaintiff. Do not use colorful sentences such as “So-and-so has been placed in the dock.”

D. Do not use sentences such as “Party committee so-and-so has decided to dismiss or expel Cadre so-and-so from the government.” Use “Party committee so-and-so has recommended the dismissal or expulsion of Cadre so-and-so from the government.”

E. Do not abbreviate “National People’s Congress Standing Committee Vice-Chairman” as “National People’s Congress Vice-Chairman.” Do not abbreviate “Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee Vice-Director” as “Provincial People’s Congress Vice-Chairman.” Do not refer to any level of People’s Congress Standing Committee members as the “People’s Congress Standing Committee.”

F. Abbreviate “Village Committee Director” as “village director.” Do not refer to them as “village head.” Do not refer to village cadres as “village officials.”

G. When referring to a “thief” or a “rapist” in a news report, do not use societal standing to embellish the reference. For example: “A thief who was once a worker.” Do not write “worker thief.” For a professor involved in a case, do not write “a criminal professor.”

H. The head deputy executive of the Audit Department in the State Council should be referred to as the “audit chief” or “vice-audit chief.” Do not refer to the position as “department chief” or “vice-department chief.”

3. Prohibited terms relating to ethnicity and religion

A. For all ethnicities, do not use any out-dated names that have offensive connotations. Do not use “Huihui” [an offensive term for the Hui ethnicity], “Manzi” [an offensive term for southern Chinese meaning barbarian], or other such terms. Do not make wanton abbreviations. For example, the “Menggu Ethnicity” [Mongolian Ethnicity] should not be abbreviated as the “Meng Ethnicity.” The “Weiwuer Ethnicity” [Uighurs] should not be abbreviated as the “Wei Ethnicity.” The “Hasaike Ethnicity” [Kazakh] should not be abbreviated as the “Hasai Ethnicity,” and so on.

B. Colloquial and specialized terms that offensively reference ethnicity are prohibited. Do not use “Mongolian doctor” in reference to a “quack doctor.” Do not use “Mongolian person” in reference to “persons with Down Syndrome,” and so on.

C. Do not refer to minority ethnicity branches and tribes as ethnic groups. Refer to them only as peoples of a branch or tribe. For example, the “Moso People, the “Sani People,” the “Chuanqing People, the “Cheng People.” Do not refer to them as the “Moso Ethnicity,” the “Sani Ethnicity,” the “Chuanqing Ethnicity,” the “Cheng Ethnicity,” and so on.

D. Do not convolute modern ethnic titles with those from ancient times. For example, do not refer to “Goguryeo” [an ancient Korean kingdom that included much of northeastern China] as “Korea.” Do not refer to the “Kazakh Ethnicity” or the “Uzbek Ethnicity” as the “Turkic Ethnicity” or the “Turkic People.”

E. Muslim is a general term for followers of Islam. Do not lump ethnicity and religion together as one. Do not say “The Hui Ethnicity is Islam,” or “Islam is the Hui Ethnicity.” When the term “Arab” is used in a news report, it cannot be replaced with “Muslim.”

F. In a story concerning ethnicities of the Islamic faith, do not mention “Pork.”

G. The Muslim slaughter of cattle, sheep and poultry can only be called “slaughter.” Do not write “kill.”

4. Prohibited terms concerning our territory, sovereignty, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau

A. Hong Kong and Macau are China’s Special Administrative Regions. Taiwan is one of China’s provinces. In any written word, on any map or chart, careful attention must be paid to not refer to it as a “country.” This is especially the case when many countries or regions are listed consecutively. Extreme attention must be given to slipping any semblance of the words “country or region” here.

B. When it is impossible to avoid referring to Taiwan’s political system and other organizations, quotations should be used. For example, Taiwan’s “Legislative Yuan,” “Executive Yuan,” “Control Yuan,” “Elections Committee,” “Executive Yuan’s Comptroller,” and so on. The appearance of “Central Government,” “National,” “Chinese Taipei,” in written word is prohibited, but in unavoidable instances, add quotations, such as in Taiwan’s “Central Bank,” and so on. Taiwan’s “Legislative Yuan Chief,” “Legislative Committee members,” and so on, must all be in quotation marks. Taiwan’s “Qinghua University” and “Imperial Palace Museum” must be in quotations. The use of “Republic of China President (Vice-President)” and other titles for Taiwanese officials are strictly forbidden, even with the use of quotation marks.

C. For the so-called laws administered by Taiwan, these should be called the “regulations concerning the region of Taiwan.” For Taiwanese legal affairs, never use “official validation,” “judiciary assistance,” “extradition,” or any other international legal terms.

D. The two shores of the Taiwan Straits and Hong Kong cannot be referred to as “two shores, three regions.”

E. Do not say “tourists from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan come to China for travel.” Instead say “tourists from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan come to the mainland (or inland) for travel.”

F. “Taiwan” and “the fatherland/ the mainland” are corresponding concepts. “Hong Kong and Macau” and “inland” are corresponding concepts. Do not confuse them.

G. Do not reference Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau together with a reference to China. For example, “China-Hong Kong,” “China-Taiwan” or “China-Macau.” Use “Inland and Hong Kong,” “mainland and Taiwan,” or “Beijing-Hong Kong,” “Shanghai-Hong Kong,” “Fujian-Taiwan,” and so on.

H. “The independence of Taiwan” or “Taiwanese independence” must be used with quotation marks.

I. Some of Taiwan’s societal organizations such as “China Taoist Culture Alliance,” “China Promotional Committee for Cross-Straits Marriage,” and others using “China,” must be used with quotation marks.

J. Taiwan cannot be called Formosa. If it must be used in a quotation, quotation makes must be used.

K. The Nansha Archipelago cannot be called the “Spratly Islands.”

L. Diaoyu Island cannot be called the “Senkaku Islands.”

M. References to Xinjiang as “Eastern Turkestan” are strictly prohibited.

5. Prohibited terms concerning international relations

A. Do not use North Korea to refer to the Democratic People’s Republic of Choson. It can be abbreviated as “Choson.” English references should be “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” or the DPRK.

B. Membership of some international organizations includes some countries, as well as regions. In reference to this kind of organization, do not use “member country.” Instead use “member” or “member party.” For example, do not use “World Trade Organization member country” or “Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation member country.” Instead use “World Trade Organization member” or “Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation member party.”

C. Do not use “Muslim Country” or “Muslim World.” Instead use “Islamic Country” or “Islamic World.”

D. When reporting on Darfur, do not use “Arab militia.” Instead use “armed militia” or “tribal militia.”

E. When reporting on societal crimes and armed attacks, normally do not deliberately reveal the suspected assailant’s skin color, race or gender characteristics. For example, avoid references such as “black ruffian.” Simply use the term “ruffian.”

F. In public reports, do not use the terms “Islamic fundamentalism” or “Islamic fundamentalist.” “Religious radicalism (radical sect, radical group)” can be used as a replacement. When the use of such terms are unavoidable, use “Islamic radical group” but do not use “radical Islamic group.”

G. Do not use “crusader” or other such terms.

H. In hostage reports, do not use “behead.” Use neutral language such as “The hostage died of decapitation.”

I. In reports on casualties in international wars, do not use terms such as “shot dead.” “Kill” and other such terms can be used.

J. Do not refer to sub-Saharan Africa as “Black Africa.” Instead call it “sub-Saharan Africa.”

© Don Weinland for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diaoyu islands, Eastern Turkistan, Ministry of Truth, Taiwan, Uighers, Xinhua
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China said on Monday it had complained to Tokyo about Japanese fishing boats near disputed islands in the East China Sea, while Japan urged talks on the row and voiced concern about its neighbour’s maritime activities.

The latest flare-up in the sea row happened while Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto visited Beijing for talks about the intense but often icy ties between Asia’s top two economies. (For more on ties, click )

It was a reminder that, despite gestures of goodwill between Beijing and Tokyo, the East China Sea remains a source of persistent tension over territorial claims and access to potentially lucrative energy reserves.

See from Xinhua, “China demands immediate withdrawal of Japanese fishing boats from Diaoyu Islands’ waters” and an article from Global Post.

Read more about the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea via CDT.

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Post tags: diaoyu islands, Japan relations, maritime boundaries, South China Sea
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The Japanese ship was on patrol on Monday near a disputed gas field that both countries want to exploit.

Relations between the two nations have been strained since a row last year over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain near islands both claim.

Japan’s Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa called the aerial manoeuvre by the Chinese helicopter “extremely dangerous”.

Officials say it flew within 70m (230ft) of the Japanese destroyer, Samidare, at an altitude of less than 40m.

The Financial Times challenges the BBC’s account of the incident’s location, however:

A Japanese defence ministry official declined to give details of where the latest incident occurred, but denied media reports it was near the controversial Chunxiao gas field, where Tokyo says Chinese drilling operations could be drawing gas from across the “median line” that it claims as the border of its EEZ.

Japan did issue a separate complaint this week regarding alleged Chinese drilling in the Chunxiao field, however.

As the articles note, last week saw Japan scramble fighters to head off Chinese aircraft approaching the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, and the Philippines complain about the menacing of one of its survey vessels by Chinese patrol boats in the South China Sea. In addition, Vietnam protested that a pair of Chinese missile destroyers had conducted exercises in its waters.

New fears for Japan’s security were sparked on Sunday by the resignation of foreign minister Maehara Seiji. During his six months in office, Maehara had sought to repair the somewhat dented alliance with the US, a strategy designed to complement the reorientation of the country’s defences away from the former Soviet Union and toward China. His departure threatens to undermine this renewed relationship with Washington, according to The Japan Times:

Takashi Kawakami, a professor of securities issues at Takushoku University, said the resignation of Maehara, known for his pro-Washington stance, will damage ties with the United States and expose Japan more to hardline China and Russia.

“If Japan can’t deepen ties with the U.S., that means Japan’s deterrence will go down,” Kawakami said, predicting China will get more aggressive around the Senkaku Islands and Russia will strengthen its grip over the four islands it holds off Hokkaido ….

Kawakami, an expert on Japan-U.S. relations, said the shock of the resignation has spread throughout Washington, where officials considered Maehara the most likely candidate to succeed Kan. But with Maehara out of the picture, the future of relations has, once again, become unclear.

Prime Minister Kan Naoto has since named Matsumoto Takeaki, a Senior Vice Foreign Minister under Maehara, as the new Foreign Secretary, suggesting a degree of continuity which may help lay these fears to rest.

China Daily reported this week that the International Institute of Strategic Studies has formally classified Japan as an “aircraft-carrier power”, leaving China encircled by four such countries: Russia, Japan, India and Thailand. Japan’s carrier has actually been afloat since 2007, but was previously categorised as a “helicopter destroyer”, a term thought to dance more nimbly than “aircraft carrier” around the constitutional prohibition on offensive weaponry. Nevertheless, the Hyuga-class vessel could potentially serve as a launch platform for planes as well as helicopters:

“The Hyuga is not yet as powerful as the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) would like it to be, mainly because there are no F-35s (fighter jets) as yet,” Li said.

“Once Japan acquires F-35s or another suitable short take-off aircraft for the Hyuga class, it will have a greatly increased expeditionary capability, and can operate in conjunction with the US more and more in regional security operations.”

Li said the JMSDF is “very powerful” in terms of capabilities. “Its assets are arguably the second best after the US. The ships are modern, powerful, and with a wide range of services. However they suffer from the same problems as the Chinese navy in that it lacks expeditionary capabilities and also the crew lack real battle experience.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aircraft carriers, China and Japan, diaoyu islands, japan military, phillippines, Russia, senkaku islands, United States, Vietnam
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Three news items in recent weeks seem to herald a return of Russia to the Asia-Pacific region. The first was the visit of Russia’s defense minister to one of the four Kuril Islands for a “military inspection trip,” following on Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s stop there last year. Second, Russia’s navy will spend more than $150 million to add dozens of submarines and surface ships over the next decade while shifting its focus to the Pacific Ocean. Third, Russia will deploy advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles to protect the Kuril Islands.

All these stories relate to the seven-decade dispute between Russia and Japan over control of the Kuril Islands, and therefore seem to indicate a worsening of the relationship. With a seemingly inexhaustible supply of petro-dollars filling Russian military coffers, Moscow is poised for the first time in two decades to make its presence felt in the northern Pacific Ocean.

But these apparent moves against Japan may in large part be feints, providing political cover for steps taken to guard against future Chinese encroachment in the Russian far east:

From timber to oil and gas, and even clean water, Siberia offers much that China will need in order to maintain not merely its economic growth, but some of the basic necessities of life in an industrialized nation. To give but one example, China’s net imports of petroleum will more than quadruple by 2035, according to some estimates, to 14 million barrels per day; meanwhile, 65% of Russia’s prospective petroleum reserves are located just north of China, in Siberia, along with 85% of the country’s natural gas reserves.

Yet there are only about 25 million Russians in all of Siberia, an area of more than 9.6 million square kilometers stretching from the Urals to the Kamchatka Peninsula, giving a population density of less than three persons per square kilometer. Further east, the Far Eastern Federal District has a population of just seven million persons, or one person per square kilometer, while 100 million Chinese live in the provinces just across the border.

Japan has described Russia’s naval deployments as “very deplorable”, and recalled its ambassador from Moscow last year after Russian President Medvedev visited the islands. Nevertheless, it is reorienting its defence posture away from the old post-war dispute and towards China. As a New York Times article featured yesterday on China Digital Times described, Tokyo’s military focus has shifted southwards:

Japan’s new national defense guidelines scrapped the cold war-era strategy of amassing land forces on the northern island of Hokkaido, where they were dug in against a Soviet invasion, in favor of building a more mobile force focused on defending its islands and vast seas in the south. To do this, Japan will strengthen its sea and air forces by adding submarines and helicopter-carrying ships that resemble small aircraft carriers, acquiring next-generation fighter planes and creating a new amphibious infantry unit that Tokyo says would be used to thwart an invasion of outlying islands.

The days since that article’s publication have seen another brush between the Air Self-Defence Force and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. From Japan Security Watch:

At noon on March 2nd, two Chinese Y-8 naval airplanes were detected 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the Senkaku islands, the closest ever approach by Chinese airplanes to the islands, according to the Ministry of Defense’s Joint Staff Office.

The Air Self-Defense Force scrambled F-15J fighters to intercept the two Chinese planes, an “intelligence airplane and antisubmarine patrol airplane”.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diaoyu islands, Japan, Russia, russia far east, russia military, senkaku islands
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There is no question but that the Japanese government lost face by “giving in” to Chinese pressure and releasing Captain Zhan. But the incident also helped boost important agendas, notably concerning Japan’s relationship with the US, the Okinawa “base relocation” problem, and future military posture.

By attaching = immediate priority to extracting an American promise to “protect” the Senkakus, Prime Minister Kan Naoto’s government showed its determination to continue Japan’s “Client State” status.37 The initiatives of Kan’s predecessor, Hatoyama Yukio, for closer Japan-China cooperation in the formation of an East Asian Community, became a thing of the past. Instead, Kan used the events to precipitate closer integration of Japanese and US military planning and operations in the Western Pacific and East Asia, and to cooperate in grand regional war games that were plainly intended to intimidate China.

Read more about the fishing boat incident via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diaoyu islands, Japan relations
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Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshito Sengoku, said the leak by a government employee, if true, would be a grave matter, while Prime Minister Naoto Kan conceded he shares responsibility for the incident.

“No matter who did this, it is regrettable that information that was not supposed to become public has been disclosed,” Kan told a parliament panel.

“Various government branches have been involved in this. But as the person in charge of the cabinet, I would naturally be responsible as well.”

Media reports said the coastguard, who leaked the 44-minute video onto the YouTube website, was aged 43. No details were given about his job.

See also “Why China and Japan are oceans apart” from the Financial Times.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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About 4,000 anti-China protesters rallied in Tokyo on Saturday, with their anger fuelled by a video capturing a collision between Chinese and Japanese vessels which sparked a diplomatic spat.

Brandishing imperialist “Rising Sun” flags, the demonstrators gathered at an open air concert hall in the centre of the capital, a chorus of Japan’s national anthem serving as an opening ceremony.

It was the latest in a series of demonstrations against Beijing’s claim to a disputed island chain in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. There have also been several anti-Japan rallies in China.

“Watching the video, I’m convinced that it was an act of terrorism,” said Masumi Yokuni, a 30-year-old housewife wearing a traditional Japanese kimono.

See also, “Japan’s Coast Guard Caught Off Guard” from the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time blog.

And from Al Jazeera:

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From AP:

Coast guard spokeswoman Mariko Inoue said the government is checking into the video, which was shown on YouTube and then Japanese television networks.

The Sept. 7 collision sparked a high-level tiff with Beijing because it occurred in waters near a group of islands claimed by Japan and China in the East China Sea. Several large anti-Japanese demonstrations have occurred in response across China.

The video has raised concerns it could rekindle the dispute ahead of an international summit in Japan next week. Tokyo hopes to have a bilateral meeting with China’s leader on the sidelines of the summit.

The video showed a trawler bumping a Japanese vessel, while sirens wailed in the background and the Japanese crew shouted orders for the ship to stop. A voice on the video said in Japanese, “The ship is taking aggressive action.” The ship then appeared to ram the Japanese vessel.

“Check our position!,” the voice said. The trawler then steamed away.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-Japan, anti-Japan protests, diaoyu islands
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