Plus war, the Game of Zones, and much, much more.
From the Guardian, no place for esnl:
China bans wordplay in attempt at pun control
Officials say casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than ‘cultural and linguistic chaos’, despite their common usage
From online discussions to adverts, Chinese culture is full of puns. But the country’s print and broadcast watchdog has ruled that there is nothing funny about them.
It has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children. The casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than “cultural and linguistic chaos”, it warns.
Chinese is perfectly suited to puns because it has so many homophones. Popular sayings and even customs, as well as jokes, rely on wordplay.
But the order from the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television says: “Radio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idioms.”
From the New York Times, challenging the imperium:
U.N. Panel Cites Concerns With U.S. Security Practices
The United States needs to make numerous changes to bring its security policies and domestic law enforcement practices fully into line with an international treaty banning torture and cruel treatment, a United Nations panel said Friday.
Delivering its findings after two days of hearings in Geneva attended by government representatives this month, the panel monitoring compliance with the treaty cited serious concerns. Among those concerns included the rules of interrogation, a failure to fully investigate allegations of torture during the administration of President George W. Bush, police shootings of unarmed African-Americans and the use of solitary confinement in prisons.
“There are numerous areas where there are things that should be changed to be fully compliant” with the United Nations Convention Against Torture, a panel member, Alessio Bruni, told reporters in Geneva as the panel released a 16-page document of findings and recommendations.
More from Deutsche Welle:
UN calls on US to comply with anti-torture treaty, stop ‘racial profiling’
The UN torture watchdog has lambasted the United States for police brutality and harsh prison conditions. A report said the country needed to improve in order to comply with a treaty it signed in 1987.
“The committee is concerned about numerous reports of police brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, in particular against persons belonging to certain racial and ethnic groups,” the committee said in its report, published days after the country was shaken by a grand jury decision to not indict a white police officer who fatally shot six times a black, unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri over the summer.
The panel said it was “concerned about numerous, consistent reports that police have used electrical discharge weapons against unarmed individuals who resist arrest or fail to comply immediately with commands, suspects fleeing minor crime scenes or even minors” and called on the US to review its use of electric taser guns, which US authorities claim are non-lethal, but which activists say have killed over 500 people.
Friday’s report urged the US to “promptly, effectively and impartially” investigate all cases of police brutality and excessive use of force and to bring perpetrators to justice and ensure compensation for victims.
From the Guardian, a shrewd political move:
Ferguson protesters in LA released on Thanksgiving in goodwill move
Amid 338 arrests, chief praises LAPD’s ‘extreme restraint’ – but some demonstrators say they were held illegally
Police in Los Angeles released jailed Ferguson protesters in time for Thanksgiving dinner as a goodwill gesture. Some, however, complained that they should not have been arrested in the first place, calling their detention illegal.
Charlie Beck, chief of the LA police department, ordered about 90 protesters who remained in custody on Thursday afternoon be released on their own recognisance following the arrest of 145 people the previous night.
“We have every legal right to keep them until they post bail,” Commander Andrew Smith told the Los Angeles Times. “But in light of the holiday … [Beck] called and said he wants everybody who is eligible for release to be released by dinner time.”
The freed detainees did not have to post bail money but were obliged to sign a promise to appear in court, where most were expected to face a misdemeanour charge for unlawful assembly.
Shopping mauled, via the Associated Press:
Ferguson protest closes huge St. Louis-area mall
Officials temporarily closed a large shopping mall near St. Louis amid a protest triggered by a grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.
At least 200 protesters gathered on one of the busiest shopping days of the year Friday at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights, about 10 miles south of Ferguson.
Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as protests sprawled onto the floor while chanting, “Stop shopping and join the movement.”
The protest prompted authorities to close the mall for about an hour. Similar protests were being held in several states.
From the Los Angeles Times, covering just up the tracks form Casa esnl:
Some Bay Area train service restored after Ferguson protest shuts station
Partial train service to San Francisco was restored after authorities arrested protesters angry over the Ferguson, Mo., grand jury decision who forced the closure of a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in West Oakland, triggering delays across the region’s busy rail system, officials said Friday.
About 15 to 25 protesters – who appear to be part of a nationwide movement using the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter – chained themselves to a train at the station, said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.
The protest caused “major delays systemwide,” she said.
Eventually authorities removed a handrail from the BART train and arrested demonstrators, officials said. Though partial service to San Francisco was restored, only one of the two station’s platforms are now open to passengers.
More from the Oakland Tribune:
West Oakland BART shut down by protesters
More than 100 demonstrators opposed to recent police killings of black males, including some protesters who chained themselves together inside trains, shut down the West Oakland BART station for more than two hours Friday, stopping service to and from San Francisco.
Fourteen protesters were arrested for interfering with a railroad operation and trespassing and hundreds of passengers had to use AC Transit buses and other means of transportation to get to San Francisco, officials said.
The well-organized and peaceful protest began about 10:30 a.m. at the station. Abut 100 protesters gathered outside the station in what they called a “healing circle,” chanting, singing, praying and handing out fliers about why they were there.
From the Guardian, striving for crepe soles on jackboots:
Labour seeks checks and balances for fast-track counter-terror laws
Opposition’s concerns over security bill focus on powers to seize passports of terror suspects and temporary exclusion orders
The official opposition’s concerns over home secretary Theresa May’s sweeping new counter-terrorism and security bill centre on the proposed powers to seize passports of terror suspects travelling to Iraq and Syria and over the introduction of temporary exclusion orders on those who want to return to Britain.
Their concern follows reservations from the official terror laws watchdog, David Anderson QC, over the lack of any judicial check on the use of temporary exclusion orders that can last up to two years. “The concern I have about this power and the central concern about it is: where are the courts in all of this?” he told parliament’s joint human rights committee.
Anderson also raised concerns about the need for compulsory de-radicalisation programmes to be introduced for returning jihadists and those at risk of being drawn into extremism in Britain and said there was an issue of academic freedom involved in the proposal for ministers to force universities to ban extremist speakers.
From TheLocal.de, German spooks, making exceptions:
BND spied on Germans living abroad
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence service, spied on some citizens living abroad, a former lawyer for the spies told MPs on Thursday.
Dr Stefan Burbaum, who worked at the BND from 2000 to 2005, said that some Germans were targeted as “office holders”, a legal loophole the spies used to circumvent the law that protects Germans citizens from being spied on by its own intelligence agency.
Normally, the intelligence agencies must overcome high legal hurdles laid out in the so-called “G10 law” to spy on German citizens, including when they live abroad.
BBC News covers Austrian apprehensions:
Austria arrests 13 suspected jihadi recruiters for Syria
Police in Austria have arrested 13 people suspected of radicalising young people and recruiting them to fight in Syria, prosecutors say.
Reports in the Austrian media said 500 police were involved in searches at mosques, flats and prayer rooms in Vienna and the cities of Linz and Graz. Authorities also seized “terrorist propaganda material”, prosecutors said.
It comes amid a European crackdown on fighters who have joined jihadist forces in Syria and Iraq.
From the Guardian, a phenomenon of distance:
Support for Isis stronger in Arabic social media in Europe than in Syria
Analysis of 2m online posts found those originating in Europe were more favourable to Isis than those from frontline of conflict
Support for Islamic State (Isis) among Arabic-speaking social media users in Belgium, Britain, France and the US is greater than in the militant group’s heartlands of Syria and Iraq, a global analysis of over 2m Arabic-language online posts has found.
In what is understood to be the first rigorous mass analysis of those for and against the world’s largest jihadist organisation, Italian academics found that in a three-and-a-half month period starting in July, content posted by Arabic-speaking Europeans on Twitter and Facebook was more favourable to Isis than content posted in those countries on the frontline of the conflict.
In Syria, Isis appears to be dramatically losing the battle for hearts and minds with more than 92% of tweets, blogs and forum comments hostile to the militants who have rampaged through the east of the country and western Iraq, seizing large tracts of territory and declaring the establishment of a religious state.
From the McClatchy Washington Bureau, twice victimized:
Former al Qaida hostage recounts nightmare – of dealing with FBI
The only thing as bad as being tortured for months as a captive of jihadists in Syria was dealing with the U.S. government afterward, according to one former American hostage.
Matt Schrier, 36, a freelance photographer held by extremists for seven months in 2013 until he escaped, has told McClatchy that the bureaucracy he endured upon his return home was a second kind of nightmare following the months of abuse he suffered while he was a hostage.
“I never thought it would get this bad,” Schrier said.
The FBI never told his father that he had been kidnapped. It waited six months into his capture to produce a wanted poster, and only after his mother prodded. It allowed jihadist forces to empty his bank account – $17,000 – with purchases on eBay, even as the government warned hostage families not to pay ransom so as not to run afoul of anti-terrorism laws.
After his escape, the government made him reimburse the State Department $1,605 for his ticket home just weeks after he arrived in the United States. The psychiatrist assigned to help him readjust canceled five appointments in the first two months. And when he had no
After the jump, Syrian hackers crack Western news sites, a Sino-American anti cyber-terror initiative, new malware infiltrates point-of-sale transactions, Danish cops bust illegal seller of mobile device spyware, China busts an exam spyware cheating ring, hackers claim a major haul from Sony, and airport raids target holiday ticket cybertheft, and back to non-digital crime with the good ol’ all-American lone wolf, Denver cops videoed beating hapless victims then seize the tablet and erase the video only to be foiled by the cloud, allegations of a murderous cabal of Thatcherite kiddie-diddling Members of Parliament, an anti-austerity nationwide general strike in Greece, 120+ killed in Nigerian mosque suicide bombing, Israel mulls a bounty on Arab citizenship surrender, privatized security booms in Latin America, Indian fundamentalists battle to censor the stage, an Indonesian fuel price rice fuels deadly disorder, China blasts U.S. missile defense system sale to Seoul while Russia sells air defense missiles to China, Beijing wages a Taiwan-focused conversion campaign, A Chinese writer tried for protesting media censorship, China pushes oilfield development in troubled waters, a Japanese paper folds on Comfort Women reportage, and Abe holds the line on remilitarization agenda while seeking a crisis containment system with Beijing. . .
CBC News covers hackery:
Syrian Electronic Army claims hack of news sites, including CBC
SEA appears to have used Gigya.com to hack into news, business sites
The Syrian Electronic Army is claiming responsibility for the hacking of multiple news websites, including CBC News.
CBCNews.ca was affected Thursday by the hacking. The site returned to normal later Thursday morning.
Earlier, some users trying to access the CBC website reported seeing a pop-up message reading: “You’ve been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA).”
According to technicians who worked on the fix, it may take several hours for systems to restore to normal. However, CBC News has been told that no personal data was accessed in the hack that affected CBC sites, and nothing foreign was installed on computers or devices while readers accessed the CBC during the incident.
China Daily covers an unusual alliance:
China, US targeting terror online
Number of video and audio materials promoting violence is on the increase
Counterterrorism work between China and the United States has helped authorities track down and delete a number of violent, terrorist video and audio programs stored on US servers, a senior official from the Ministry of Public Security said.
“We have agreed on enhancing judicial cooperation on fighting terrorism, especially cracking down on violent and terrorist audio and video files released online in the US,” said Yang Shaowen, deputy director of the ministry’s International Cooperation Bureau.
The situation has worsened across the country this year, as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and other groups have released more materials promoting terrorism on overseas websites, the State Internet Information Office said.
The number of investigated terrorism-related videos has risen from 13 in 2011 to 109 last year, the State Internet Information Office said.
New malware infiltrates point-of-sale transactions, via Network World:
Early version of new POS malware family spotted
A security researcher came across what appears to be a new family of point-of-sale malware that few antivirus programs were detecting.
Nick Hoffman, a reverse engineer, wrote the Getmypass malware shares traits that are similar to other so-called RAM scrapers, which collect unencrypted payment card data held in a payment system’s memory.
That type of malware has been responsible for large payment card breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus and others, capitalizing on a common weakness in systems that experts say can be fixed with more robust encryption of card details.
Danish cops bust illegal seller of mobile device spyware, from SecurityWeek:
Man Pleads Guilty to Selling StealthGenie Spyware
A Danish citizen pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to selling StealthGenie, a spyware application capable of remotely monitoring calls, texts, videos and other communications on mobile devices undetected.
Hammad Akbar, 31, chief executive officer of InvoCode Pvt. Limited and Cubitium Limited, was ordered to pay a fine of $500,000 for advertising and selling StealthGenie online. StealthGenie could be installed on a variety of mobile phones, including the iPhone, Android devices, and Blackberry. Once installed, it could intercept all conversations and text messages sent using the phone. The app was undetectable by most users and was advertised as being untraceable, according to authorities.
“Spyware is an electronic eavesdropping tool that secretly and illegally invades individual privacy,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell, in a statement. “Make no mistake: selling spyware is a federal crime, and the Criminal Division will make a federal case out if it. [Tuesday’s] guilty plea by a creator of the StealthGenie spyware is another demonstration of our commitment to prosecuting those who would invade personal privacy.”
China busts an exam spyware cheating ring, from Shanghai Daily:
Spy gadget network for exam cheats busted
A nationwide network manufacturing and selling spy gadgets to help exam cheats has been broken up by Shanghai police.
Eleven people were held in the city and in several provinces and regions, officers said yesterday.
A huge number of devices were seized, said city officers. These included cameras hidden in spectacles and watches, erasers and pens with screens, tiny capsule wireless earpieces and mini transmitters.
Armed with these, a cheat photographs the exam paper and sends it by wireless to accomplices.
They find the answers and either tell these to the crooked candidate via the earpiece or send them to a device with a screen.
Hackers claim a major haul from Sony, via the London Daily Mail:
Spider-Man studio gets stuck on the web: Hackers attack Sony Pictures, claiming to have stolen private information of Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz… and leaving staff ‘using pen and paper’
Hackers from ‘Guardians of Peace’ group struck Sony systems on Monday
Staff forced to ‘sit at their desks trying to do their jobs with pen and paper’
Screens displayed image of red skeleton with phrase ‘Hacked By #GOP
Then words: ‘We’ve already warned you, and this is just a beginning’
Files taken include ‘Cameron Diaz – passport’ and ‘Angelina Jolie passport’
The Hollywood studio behind the Spider-Man and James Bond films says hackers have crippled its computer network and stole the private information of stars including Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie.
Staff at Sony Pictures Entertainment have been forced to ‘sit at their desks trying to do their jobs with pen and paper’ since the attack, by a hacking collective called ‘Guardians of Peace’, five days ago.
And today employees were told they may have to wait up to three weeks for the breach to be cleared.
Airport raids target holiday ticket cybertheft, via BBC News:
Airport raids tackle cyberthieves over ticket fraud
Cyberthieves who used stolen credit cards to buy airline tickets have been targeted in a series of raids. Europol co-ordinated the raids at airports, targeting people who were trying to travel using a fraudulently bought ticket.
In total, 118 people were arrested at 80 airports in 45 countries during the raids.
Airlines lose more than $1bn (£640m) a year to the trade in fraudulent tickets, said Europol. “Airlines are fighting credit card fraud on their ticket sales on daily basis,” said Meta Backman from the European airline fraud prevention group in a statement. “It is clear to the airlines that they are up against organised crime in this fight.”
Ah, the good ol’ all-American lone wolf?, via BBC News:
‘Anti-government’ gun attack in Texas
A gunman who attacked downtown buildings and the Mexican Consulate in Austin, Texas, before being shot, may have had political reasons, say police.
The white, middle-aged man fired at the consulate, the police headquarters and a courthouse early on Friday morning. He was shot by police but it is not clear whether he was fatally wounded or took his own life.
Police said it looked like an “anti-government” attack and pointed to the “heated” immigration debate.
Denver cops videoed beating hapless victims then seize the tablet and erase the video only to be foiled by the cloud, from News Corp Australia:
Denver Police seize tablet, delete video of brutal arrest. But it had backed up to “the cloud”
Denver Police under fire for shocking assault caught on camera
THE Denver cops punched a man in the face and bounced his head off the pavement. They tripped his pregnant wife — and then saw they were being filmed. What happened next has the “land of the free” in uproar.
Late in August, Levi Frasier saw a violent scene unfolding on the street before him. So he decided to use his tablet to record it. As plain-clothed men repeatedly punch a Latino man in the face, they can be heard shouting: “Spit the drugs out! Spit the drugs out!”
In the background, a woman is screaming “stop” in Spanish. Two uniformed officers rush up and help restrain the man — and knock the feet out from beneath the visibly pregnant 25-year-old. She lands on her stomach and face.
Some 55 seconds later, someone shouted “camera”. A police officer stormed up to the witness, who was white, snatching his device from his hands and threatens him with arrest.
From the London Telegraph, allegations of a murderous cabal of Thatcherite kiddie-diddling Members of Parliament:
Historic Westminster child abuse and murder claims ‘only tip of the iceberg’ in scandal, Theresa May warns
Home Secretary suggests more allegations and revelations are likely during Andrew Marr Show appearance where she also admitted Government is ‘unlikely’ to hit net immigration target
Revelations that politicians allegedly murdered and raped young boys is “only the tip of the iceberg” in the Westminster historic child abuse scandal, Theresa May has warned.
The Home Secretary expressed dismay that institutions designed to protect children failed in the past and said she was determined to bring those guilty to justice, whatever their position.
In recent weeks new allegations have emerged suggesting Tory MPs murdered and abused boys as part of an establishment paedophile network in the 1970s and 80s. Police are investigating the claims.
An anti-austerity nationwide general strike in Greece, from Deutsche Welle:
Tens of thousands march against austerity measures in Greece
Greece has come to a standstill after tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in a 24-hour nationwide strike. New austerity policies and tax raids have ignited further discontent among the Greek population.
Nationwide chaos ensued on Thursday as tens of thousands of Greek workers rallied in major cities across the country in a 24-hour strike.
The strike was called by the country’s largest private and public sector unions, GSEE and ADEDY, a day after crucial talks between Greece and its EU-IMF creditors failed to break a deadlock on the country’s planned budget and reform agenda for 2015.
“We are responding to the dogmatic insistence of the government and [creditors] for further austerity policies and tax raids,” the GSEE said.
From Channel NewsAsia Singapore, lethal fundamentalism:
At least 120 dead in Nigeria mosque suicide attack
The attack at the Grand Mosque in Kano, the biggest city in the mainly Muslim north of the country, came just as Friday prayers had started
At least 120 people were killed and 270 others wounded on Friday (Nov 29) when two suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire during weekly prayers at the mosque of one of Nigeria’s top Islamic leaders.
The attack at the Grand Mosque in Kano, the biggest city in the mainly Muslim north of the country, came just as Friday prayers had started. The mosque is attached to the palace of the Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II, Nigeria’s second most senior Muslim cleric, who last week urged civilians to take up arms against Boko Haram.
The blasts came after a bomb attack was foiled against a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri earlier on Friday, five days after two female suicide bombers killed over 45 people in the city.
Israel mulls a bounty on Arab citizenship surrender, via RT:
Israeli FM suggests paying Israeli Arabs to forfeit citizenship
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has proposed giving financial incentives to Israeli Arabs to encourage them to forfeit their citizenship and move to a new Palestinian state.
In an updated platform for his right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, Lieberman advocates economic incentives for Arab citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the population, to leave the country. The foreign minister also moots handing over areas of northern Israel, where Arabs are in the majority, to a future Palestinian state.
He also said that Arabs, living in the mixed cities of Jaffa and Acre on the Mediterranean coast and far from the West Bank, should be encouraged to relocate.
From the Associated Press, privatized security booms in Latin America:
Private firms filling Latin America’s security gap
While private security is growing worldwide, Latin America is the region where the boom directly relates to rising rates of homicide, kidnapping and extortion. Plagued by drug cartels and violent gangs, Latin America has surpassed Africa to claim the world’s highest murder rate.
Private guards are part of everyday life in Latin American cities. With large guns and bullet-proof vests, they guard bakeries, even mattress deliveries, and ride shotgun in trucks carrying anything from Coca-Cola to cold cuts. They don earpieces and hide pistols under dark suits as they escort executives’ children to school.
But they’re not a solution to the rampant crime. Security guards only push crime to unguarded areas. They weaken the sense of community and widen the gap between the rich and poor in a region that already has the largest income disparity in the world, said Mexican international relations professor Rafael Fernandez de Castro, coordinator of the team that produced last year’s U.N. report on Latin America security.
Indian fundamentalists battle to censor the stage, from the Guardian:
Hamlet remake row shines light on India’s culture wars
Contemporary version of Shakespeare play has become focus of battle between religious conservatives and creative artists
The tone is uncompromising. The language is harsh. The sovereignty and integrity of India has been attacked with impunity, the court documents claim. The unity of the nation has been undermined.
But the source of the alleged threat to the world’s largest democracy is a somewhat surprising one: a cinematic remake of Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s great tragedy has always provoked strong emotion but it is rare that anyone seeks to ban productions of it on the grounds of national security.
On Friday, a court in a northern Indian state will hear that a recently released film of the play in a contemporary local setting should be banned to preserve the emerging economic powerhouse and its 1.25 billion inhabitants from further harm. The lawyers bringing the case are from a group calling itself “Hindus for Justice” and claim to be acting on behalf of the 80% of citizens who follow the faith.
From Channel NewsAsia Singapore, an Indonesian fuel price rice fuels deadly disorder:
One dead in Indonesian protest against fuel price hike
A protester died on Thursday (Nov 27) as a stone-throwing crowd clashed with police in central Indonesia during a demonstration against a dramatic increase in fuel prices, police said.
The 27-year-old man was found in the street after police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse about 200 demonstrators trying to force their way into the local governor’s office in Makassar, on Sulawesi island.
The city has been the site of small demonstrations since last week’s decision by new President Joko Widodo to increase the price of subsidised petrol and diesel by over 30 per cent.
Economists have welcomed the move to reduce subsidies that gobble up a huge chunk of the budget in Southeast Asia’s top economy, but it risks hitting the poor hardest as higher transportation costs will push up the price of food.
China blasts U.S. missile defense system sale to Seoul, from Want China Times:
China voices strongest opposition yet to new missile defense system in S. Korea
Qiu Guohong, the Chinese ambassador to the Republic of Korea expressed Beijing’s opposition to the deployment of a US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, also known as THAAD, to South Korea, according to the Seoul-based JoongAng Ilbo.
Designed by Lockheed Martin, THAAD is capable of detecting and intercepting ballistic missiles launched more than 2,000km away. Placed in South Korea, it could easily capture and monitor the movement of the People’s Liberation Army in the East China Sea with its AN/TPY-2 X-band radar. When Chinese president Xi Jinping visited Seoul on July, he personally suggested South Korean president Park Geun-hye to take more consideration before allowing such a deployment to take place.
Ambassador Qiu officially expressed China’s opposition to the deployment of THAAD in South Korean territory during a conference held at the nation’s parliament on Nov. 27. He pointed out that South Korea does not need THAAD to track missiles fired 2,000km away as Won Hye-young, head of Seoul’s parliamentary special committee on the development of inter-Korean relations told the JoongAng Ilbo. Qiu pointed out that North Korea is more likely to attack the South with short-range tactical missiles.
While Russia sells air defense missiles to China, from Want China Times:
Russia signs contract to sell S-400 air defense missiles to China
Russia signed a contract to provide S-400 surface-to-air missiles worth US$3 billion to China after years of negotiations, a senior official from the Russian defense industries told Vedomosti, a Russian-language newspaper based in Moscow on Nov. 26.
The spokesperson of Almaz-Antei, the designer of S-400 missile, however, refused to give any comment about the sale. Back in 2011, the Russian government claimed that China will not be able to purchase S-400 missiles before 2016. The Moscow-based Kommersant then reported in the spring of 2014 that president Vladimir Putin approved the deal.
Sergei Ivanov, the chief of staff presidential administration of Russia pointed out that in July of 2014 China would likely become the first overseas buyer of the S-400 missile system. Currently, the People’s Liberation Army of China still relies primarily on the S-300 series to defend Chinese air space. Four years ago, China purchased enough S-300 PMU-2 air defense missiles to equip 15 air defense battalions from Russia.
Seeking converts with the Japan Times:
Shadowy Chinese agency woos Taiwanese to win island back
United Front documents reviewed by Reuters, including annual reports, instructional handbooks and internal newsletters, as well as interviews with Chinese and Taiwanese officials reveal the extent to which the agency is engaged in a concerted campaign to thwart any move toward greater independence by Taiwan and ultimately swallow up the self-ruled island of 23 million.
The United Front’s 2013 annual work report for the Chinese province of Zhejiang, for instance, includes the number of Taiwanese living in the province, the number of businesses they run as well as an entry on background checks that have been conducted on the Taiwanese community in the province, an entrepreneurial hub near Shanghai.
The United Front hasn’t confined itself to the mainland. It is targeting academics, students, war veterans, doctors and local leaders in Taiwan in an attempt to soften opposition to the Communist Party and ultimately build support for unification. The 2013 work report, reviewed by reporters, includes details of a program to bring Taiwanese students and military veterans on visits to the mainland.
A Chinese writer tried for protesting media censorship, via Reuters:
China writer goes on trial for media censorship protest after long delay
The long-awaited trial of a prominent Chinese writer and activist resumed in southern China on Friday, more than two months after his lawyers boycotted an earlier hearing with Beijing showing little sign of easing its clampdown against rights campaigners.
Guo Feixiong, 48, was arrested for taking part in a rare public protest against media censorship outside the offices of the Southern Weekly newspaper in January last year in the southern city of Guangzhou.
Guo will be tried on a charge of “gathering crowds to disturb public order”, along with another activist Sun Desheng.
China pushes oilfield development in troubled waters, via Want China Times:
Beijing pushes offshore oilfields in the Bohai and South China seas
The General Office of the State Council of China has announced plans to develop nine large oilfields in the Bohai Sea and the South China Sea to secure its energy sources, reports our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.
It is the first time that Chinese government has proposed to develop large oilfields in the South China Sea. The oilfields will be able to produce over 10 thousand tons per year, according to estimates in the plan set for 2014-2020.
Guidelines target offshore oilfields and pledge to maintain existing oilfields and develop new ones on land, according to the Hong Kong Commercial Daily. China has rich oil and natural gas resources along its coasts that span across more than one million square kilometers.
Oilfield development will inevitably lead the country into conflict with neighboring countries again. China has previously clashed with Japan over territorial disputes in the East China Sea as well as with Vietnam over an oil rig in the South China Sea.
A Japanese paper folds on Comfort Women reportage, via BBC News:
Japan paper Yomiuri Shimbun retracts ‘sex slaves’ references
Japan’s biggest newspaper has issued a controversial apology for using the term “sex slaves” when referring to women who worked in brothels set up for Japanese soldiers in World War Two.
Yomiuri Shimbun said its English version should not have used the phrase as it implied the women were coerced.
Japan apologised in 1993 for forcing thousands of women, many from China and South Korea, into army brothels. But some conservatives in Japan want that admission reassessed.
Pressure from conservatives within Japan to reconsider the apology to the women, who have been referred to euphemistically as “comfort women”, has angered neighbouring Asian nations. Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during World War Two are estimated to have been forced to become sex slaves for troops.
From the Asahi Shimbun, Abe holds the line on remilitarization agenda:
Abe: Further interpretation change not possible on collective self-defense
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said a further change in the government’s constitutional interpretation regarding collective self-defense would be impossible and that an actual revision of the pacifist Constitution would be difficult.
“I believe it will not be possible to make any further changes to the interpretation without amending the Constitution,” Abe said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun on Nov. 25.
His Cabinet in July decided to change the long-standing government interpretation of the Constitution and allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
While seeking an crisis containment system with Beijing, via the Asahi Shimbun:
SDF chief urges early ‘crisis management’ pact with China
Japan’s highest-ranking Self-Defense Forces officer on Nov. 28 urged an early start of a “crisis management” mechanism with China amid conflicting claims to the Senkaku Islands in East China Sea.
Relations between China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies, have also been strained by the legacy of Japan’s wartime occupation of its larger Asian neighbor.
Patrol ships and fighter jets from both countries have shadowed each other regularly near the uninhabited islands, prompting fears an accidental collision or other incident could escalate into a larger conflict.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed this month to start work on maritime crisis management. Such talks have been halted since Japan nationalized three of the disputed islands in September 2012.
“It would allow communication between people at the scene. That’s significant,” Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of the SDF’s Joint Staff, told Reuters. “The communication mechanism covers both the navies and air forces. Enabling such communication would be a great step forward in avoiding an unexpected situation. We have been pushing for an early implementation all along.”
