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Plum tree planted by China's Jiang in Sendai cut down Wednesday, May 11, 2005 at 05:37 JST SENDAI — A plum tree planted in 1998 by then Chinese President Jiang Zemin in a park in Sendai, capital of Miyagi Prefecture, has been cut down, the Sendai city government said Tuesday. Police said they have begun investigating the incident, suspecting it is related to the recent series of anti-Japan rallies in China. (Kyodo News)

The United States has pressed China to use all of its "tools in the box" to bring North Korea back to negotiations on its nuclear arms program, a State Department official said. But the official, who asked not to be named, stopped short of confirming reports that top US envoy Christopher Hill asked Beijing to cut off fuel to the North Koreans but was rebuffed by the Chinese. Washington has made no secret that it was counting largely on China to woo Pyongyang back to the stalled six-party nuclear talks that also include Japan, Russia and South Korea. "What we...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050510-00000152-kyodo-int/begin my translationU.S. demanded China to resolve stalemate in 6 party talks by JulyKyodo News 05/10/05[Washington] It has been known today that U.S. recently asked China, the chair-nation of 6-party talks, to resolve the (current) situation by July, 2005, so that N. Korea can return to the negotiation table, according to sources on U.S.-China relations. It appears that they have put pressure through China in order to block the preparation for N. Korean nuclear test, which is the cherished goal of the International Community.In addition to the coincidence that coming late June is the  one year anniversary of 6 party talk,  the deep...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea accused the United States on Tuesday of making a fuss by notifying allies of the communist nation's possible preparations for a nuclear test, and maintained it would stay away from international disarmament talks. "The United States is making a fuss saying that it was notifying the International Atomic Energy Agency, Japan and other related countries of its own opinion that our republic may conduct an underground nuclear test in June," the North's main state-run Rodong Sinmun daily wrote in a commentary, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency. However, the North...

North Korea 'has six nuclear weapons' (Filed: 09/05/2005) The United Nations' main nuclear watchdog believes that North Korea has up to six nuclear weapons, its chief said yesterday. Asked by CNN whether it was its assessment that the North Koreans already had as many as six nuclear bombs, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said: "I think that would be close to our estimation. "We knew they had the plutonium that could be converted into five or six weapons. We know that they have the delivery system." According to US intelligence reports, Pyongyang is believed to...

China warns Japan against using Taiwan as political card Sunday, May 8, 2005 at 00:16 JST BEIJING — Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Saturday expressed strong concern over Japan's recent actions and comments over Taiwan, and warned Tokyo not to use the island as a "political card" against Beijing, a Japanese lawmaker said. Taku Yamasaki, a legislator and special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, told a press conference Tang made the comments in a meeting with him in the Chinese capital. Tang in particular expressed displeasure over Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's remarks last week in New...

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) A senior U.S. administration official told visiting Japanese lawmakers that the United States has directly urged China not to block Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, delegation chief Fukushiro Nukaga said. U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns also revealed that he has conveyed concerns over the recent anti-Japan rallies in China and has called on China, as well as South Korea, to mend their soured ties with Japan, Nukaga told reporters after a meeting Friday between Burns and the Japanese delegation. Burns told the defense-related delegation of ruling coalition...

Japan yesterday renewed a demand that China apologize and compensate for sometimes violent anti-Japanese protests as their foreign ministers tried to find a way through a series of bitter disputes. Two weeks after the two nations' leaders held a summit in Indonesia, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said he had a "frank" meeting with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing (—›”£¯) on the neighbors' tense ties. "We had a frank exchange of views," Machimura said in brief comments to reporters after the one-hour, 35-minute meeting. "It was a meaningful meeting." Asked if he asked for an apology and compensation for protests...

Japan and China clashed over memories of the past but agreed to take small steps forward including a joint study of their history to get their relations off rock bottom. In talks between foreign ministers, Japan and China traded demands over rows including anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, the Taiwan issue, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine. But Nobutaka Machimura of Japan and China's Li Zhaoxing agreed to try to repair their relations. China refused to apologize for protesters' damage to Japanese interests but promised to study whether to offer compensation, officials said Saturday. The sometimes...

China said to reject plan to cut off N.Korea oil 34 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China rejected a U.S. envoy's proposal to cut off North Korea's oil supply as a way to pressure the reclusive government to return to disarmament talks, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. Chinese government officials rebuffed the U.S. idea, claiming it would damage their pipeline, the newspaper said citing unnamed U.S. officials briefed on the talks. In a meeting in Beijing on April 26, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill raised the suggestion of a "technical" interruption of fuel. But Chinese official Yang...

  China’s economy is a stunted giantPeter ZhangBrookesNews.ComMonday 21 March 2005 Many American conservatives pay a great deal of attention to China’s military ambitions and potential — and so they should. But to do so while ignoring China’s economic situation is to show poor judgement. Beijing fully understands, even if most of these conservatives do not, that to successfully wage full-scale war against a highly advanced economy requires an economy at a similar stage of development. When several years ago Jiang Zemin stated that we “should focus our limited funds on cutting-edge areas of military science and technology” he certainly...

Japan to give North Korea a deadline for discussions AFP , Washington and Kyoto, JapanSaturday, May 07, 2005,Page 4 Japan is expected to propose a deadline for North Korea to attend nuclear talks or face action at the UN Security Council, a senior official of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political party said Thursday. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura might discuss this proposal with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing (—›”£¯) while attending the Asia-Europe Meeting this weekend at the Japanese ancient city of Kyoto. Machimura indicated at a parliamentary meeting recently that he might raise this issue with the Chinese...

KYOTO, Japan, (AFP) - China rebuffed criticism that it was not putting enough pressure on North Korea to resume talks to end its nuclear program, saying it had limited influence on Pyongyang and needed other nations to do more. The United States, Japan and South Korea have all called on China to intervene further with Pyongyang, which relies on Beijing as its main ally, after the Stalinist state suspended talks indefinitely and boasted of a nuclear deterrent. "China has done a very good job. But China alone is not enough," Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told reporters at a meeting...

"Reform with no sacred cows" was Junichiro Koizumi's slogan when he became prime minister five years ago, and no cow here is more sacred than our "peace" constitution. So it should be no surprise that, as Koizumi moves toward the end of his second and final term in office, his efforts to reform the constitution to allow Japan more effectively to defend world peace are gathering pace. In mid-April, the Constitution Review committee of Japan's House of Representatives issued a final report on the fundamental problems facing Japan's constitution and submitted it to the Chair of House of the Diet....

Chinese Police Head Off Anti-Japan Protests Claro Cortes IV/Reuters Tiananmen Square was closed Wednesday morning for a youth pageant. It reopened under heavy security. By JIM YARDLEYPublished: May 5, 2005 BEIJING, May 4 - Thousands of police officers in Beijing and Shanghai stood guard on Wednesday in a show of force to ensure that one of China's most sensitive political anniversaries did not erupt into a new wave of angry protests against Japan. Greg Baker/Associated Press Chinese paramilitary police officers stood guard Wednesday at the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai. The May 4 anniversary, a pivotal date in defining modern Chinese...

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has again warned North Korea to return to nuclear talks or face being taken to the UN Security Council. He was speaking on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe meeting (Asem) being held in the Japanese city of Kyoto. The warning came amid fresh reports of intelligence suggesting North Korea may be about to test a nuclear weapon for the first time. The North has not taken part in the six-nation talks for almost year.

UNITED NATIONS, May 5 (Reuters) - A group of 27 scientists, nuclear experts and former officials urged Japan on Thursday to rethink a nearly completed plutonium reprocessing plant that could produce fuel for 1,000 warheads each year. "Japan is about to join several nuclear-weapon states as a producer of separated plutonium on an industrial scale," the experts said in a joint letter posted on the Web site of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S. nonprofit organization focusing on environmental and nuclear safety issues. The letter said the plant could produce up to 8 metric tons of plutonium a year...

American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, Inc. MEDIA ADVISORY Contact: Eric Lachica or Ms. Maurese Owens CELL: 202 246-1998 or 703 606-8796 May 6 Noon Protest: Japan Ambassador's No Apology WASHINGTON, DC - Elderly Filipino American WWII veterans and family survivors will hold a news conference on Friday May 6 at NOON 12:15 PM outside the Japanese Embassy to protest the recent controversial Japanese government approval of junior high school textbooks "whitewashing" the atrocities committed by their military during WWII. The Japanese Embassy is located at 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW ( 5 blocks north of DUPONT METRO) The veteran' group's goal...

Japan flexes its military muscles with US support AP , OVER THE EAST CHINA SEAThursday, May 05, 2005,Page 5 In a delicate ballet 7,500m above the open sea, four Japanese F-15s pull up to a US Air Force tanker, the insignia of the rising sun shining from their wings. One by one, they maneuver into range of the tanker's refueling boom, hold their position, then dip their wings and vanish. American military planners say it's the look of the future -- a deeply interwoven relationship with a credible Japanese ally ready to deploy overseas and share the burden of keeping...

China "shocked" by Japan's comments on Taiwan www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-04 22:46:43 BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhuanet) -- China expressed shock at Japanese Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka's recent comments on Taiwan, which Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said interfere in China's internal affairs. In a recent speech delivered in New York, Machimura talked about making Taiwan a common strategic target of Japan and the United States, saying it did not have any disagreement with Japan's Taiwan policy so far. He said this could not be taken as an expansion of Japan's defense line to Taiwan because Taiwan is an original target of the...