At Ikea's 21 stores across China, customers (and those simply looking for some climate-controlled shut-eye) have no qualms about getting comfortable on the display furniture.

The Chinese ability to sleep wherever, whenever, is something of a national pastime. Citizens can be found dozing off, sometimes in bizarre contortions, in supermarkets, on playground equipment, on the backs of mopeds, under parked vehicles and on Ikea display beds.

Les Chinois viennent chez Ikea pour faire la sieste 　(France・Le Figaro) 　(October 5, 2013)

Au rayon des meubles et cuisine notamment, il n'est pas rare de voir des pique-niqueurs, assis sur les tables d'exposition avec leur thermos de thé et leurs sandwichs.

Mais c'est au rayon des chambres à coucher que les visiteurs se sentent le plus comme chez eux: jeunes et moins jeunes n'hésitent pas à se déchausser, puis se glisser sous les draps des lits d'exposition pour piquer un somme.

China is building its first overseas military base in Africa in its a quest to become a naval superpower.

Satellite images show advanced construction on a 90-acre plot in Djibouti on the pirate-infested Horn of Africa.

The naval outpost, which is due for completion next year, is expected to feature weapons stores, ship and helicopter maintenance facilities and possibly special forces.

Camel herders first spotted Chinese troops staking out a patch of coastal scrubland, around eight miles from the largest U.S. military base in Africa.

The new cluster of buildings and shipping containers, some flying the Chinese flag, now offers the first real sign of China’s ambition to extend its military reach across the Indian Ocean and beyond.

Experts say that expansion could challenge Western security partnerships that have underpinned the world order since 1945, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

It also comes as world tensions mount over Beijing island-snatching in the South China Sea which has seen it build military bases in the hotly contested waters despite a UN tribunal ruling.

Admiral Sun Jianguo, the deputy chief of the joint staff department and likely future naval chief, signalled China’s intentions in April.

Writing in a Communist Party magazine, he said steadily advancing overseas base construction’ was one of President Xi Jinping’s foreign-policy priorities.

Only a few countries have bases beyond their borders: the U.S. has the most with 42 followed by Britain, France and Russia with around a dozen.

China says the Djibouti base is just a ‘support facility’ and denies plans to build large-scale U.S-style military hubs.

But it has spoken about negotiating more overseas outposts, with the Pentagon predicting China will establish several more in the next decade.

One likely spot is Oman’s port of Salalah, where Chinese navy ships often stop for rest and resupply, say defence experts.

Other possibilities include the Seychelles and Pakistan’s port of Karachi.

China tightened its rules on tourist visa issuance for South Koreans, the foreign ministry here said Friday, the second revision to its regulations in less than two weeks that comes amid a diplomatic row over Seoul's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense shield on its soil.

China notified its four visa centers in South Korea earlier in the day of a new rule requiring group tourist visa seekers to present original passports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief note to the press.

The latest measure follows a revision of China's immigration control law, the ministry said, quoting the Chinese Embassy in Seoul.

The move marks the second time that Beijing has tightened visa rules for South Koreans wanting to enter the country.

Earlier in the month, China shut down a Chinese visa agency working for South Korean businessmen seeking long-term multi-entry visas.

The unusual development between the two economic partners came as tensions escalated over South Korea's plan to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) here to better cope with North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

Last month, South Korea announced a THAAD battery will be set up in the county of Seongju by the end of 2017.

China, however, vehemently opposes the deployment which it says will severely impair Beijing's security interests in the region.

A group of entertainment events featuring South Korean TV stars were also canceled in China without specific explanations this month, as the countries exchanged barbs over the deployment plan.

Chinese Olympic women's swimmer Chen Xinyi tested positive for a banned substance at the Rio Olympics on Aug. 7, state media said on Friday citing the country's swimming association, the latest doping scandal to mar competition at the Games.

Controversies over doping overshadowed the build-up to Rio and, far from dying down as events got under way, have flared anew as U.S. and Australian competitors have branded their Russian and Chinese rivals as drug cheats.

Chen, 18, failed a test for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide and has applied to the International Olympic Committee for a hearing to look into the matter, state news agency Xinhua cited the Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) as saying. The CSA has required Chen to cooperate with the investigation, Xinhua said.

Hydrochlorothiazide, known as a masking agent, is a banned substance because it can be used to spur weight loss and cover up the presence of other illegal drugs by diluting urine collected in doping tests.

Chen finished fourth in the women's 100m butterfly final on Sunday, and was scheduled to swim in the 50 freestyle heats on Friday in Rio.

WASHINGTON ? The United States has expressed opposition to any attempt to undermine Japan’s administration of a group of East China Sea islands, in reference to continued intrusions by Chinese government ships into Japanese waters around the islets despite repeated protests by Tokyo.

“We oppose any unilateral action that seeks to undermine Japan’s administration of the Senkaku Islands,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said at a press briefing on Wednesday

Trudeau reaffirmed the U.S. position that although Washington does not take sides on the issue of sovereignty on the islands, they fall under the Japan-U.S. security treaty?meaning that the United States will defend Japan in the event of emergencies over the islets, which Beijing claims and calls Diaoyu.

“The Senkaku Islands have been under Japanese administration since the reversion of Okinawa in 1972. (As such) they fall within the scope of Article Five of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security,” she said.

As of Wednesday afternoon Japan time, seven Chinese government vessels and over 200 fishing vessels have been spotted operating in the contiguous zone just beyond Japanese waters around the islets, according to Japan Coast Guard officials.

“We are in close communication with the Japanese as allies and are also concerned about the increase of Chinese coast guard vessels in the vicinity of the islands,” Trudeau said.

China, which maintains the islands have been its inherent territory since ancient times, says it is a matter of course that Chinese vessels operate in waters near their country’s territory.

Australian swimmer Mack Horton called China's Sun Yang a "drug cheat"

China’s state-run newspaper mocked Australia’s history as a penal colony in response to Olympic freestyle swimmer Mack Horton’s comments on his Chinese rival Sun Yang.

On Aug. 6, Horton? who had just won the 400 freestyle race? drew the ire of Yang’s fans after calling the Chinese national a “drug cheat” for the second time in a post-race press conference. Horton’s social media accounts were soon inundated with messages from Chinese ‘netizens’ demanding that he apologize. His Wikipedia page was also edited, the Guardian reports, to read: “His remarks of Sun is widely believed to be a part of his cultural heritage in that he was practically nursed race prejudice at his mother’s breasts [sic].”

China Daily joined the fray on Monday, criticizing Horton’s “cynical smugness” for beating Sun and “the Australian media” for “recklessly [spreading] Horton’s rude speech.”

They went on to castigate Australia, saying that the country “should feel embarrassed” with Horton’s behavior.

“In many serious essays written by Westerners, Australia is mentioned as a country at the fringes of civilization” China Daily wrote. “In some cases, they refer to the country’s early history as Britain’s offshore prison. This suggests that no one should be surprised at uncivilized acts emanating from the country. We should think the same way.”

According to the Guardian, Sun served a three month ban for having traces of the banned substance, trimetazidine, in his system. The swimmer says he was taking the drug for heart palpitations.

Apple has lost a trademark fight in China, meaning a firm which sells handbags and other leather goods can continue to use the name "IPHONE".

The Beijing Municipal High People's Court ruled in favour of Xintong Tiandi Technology, said the official Legal Daily newspaper.

Xintong Tiandi trademarked "IPHONE" for leather products in China in 2010.

Apple filed a trademark bid for the name for electronic goods in 2002, but it was not approved until 2013.

Apple is disappointed the Beijing Higher People's Court chose to allow Xintong to use the iPhone mark for leather goods when we have prevailed in several other cases against Xintong, said a spokesman for the firm.

"We intend to request a retrial with the Supreme People's Court and will continue to vigorously protect our trademark rights." "We work hard to make the best products in the world and want to ensure our customers' experience is not compromised by companies who try to profit from using our brand."

The Legal Daily (in Chinese) is widely recognised as the official mouthpiece for the country's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Its report came out in late April but has only just been widely circulated.

Xintong Tiandi sells handbags, mobile phone cases and other leather goods branded with the name "IPHONE", close to Apple's iPhone mark, and the "R" registered trademark symbol.

Apple first brought the case against the company to the Chinese trademark authority in 2012, then when that failed, filed a lawsuit in a lower Beijing court.

But both ruled against Apple, so it appealed to the higher court.

The higher court ruled that Apple could not prove it was a well-known brand in China before Xintong Tiandi filed its trademark application in 2007.

Apple iPhones first went on sale in China in 2009.

According to the Japan Haworthia association, 3,200 plants were stolen in Fujinomiya-city in Shizuoka prefecture, 2,900 were stolen in Kazo-city in Saitama prefecture and 540 were stolen in Tsuyama-city in Okayama prefecture. According to the association, the damages are reported in 6 prefectures and it amounts to 1,300 million yen (approximately 13 million dollar).

In the case of Fujinomiya there was the figure of the man who pulled out the roots one after another and stole them in the picture of the security camera. A man of the Chinese nationality who lived in Okayama was arrested and prosecuted through this video. He denies the participation in the case and pleads not guilty at a trial.

There were certain common suspicious moves before the cases. A woman who said she was a Chinese visited the house and she saw the works. And most of the damages were taking place few days later.

According to the man of the victim, the works which looked very much alike stolen ones were sold on the Internet afterwards and were commented in Chinese. The victim suspects that this woman might be in charge of preliminary inspection.

The Japanese police consider that a Chinese theft group may concern the cases.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has criticized South Korea's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defense system to counter threats from North Korea, saying it harmed the foundation of their trust.

The announcement by South Korea and the United States this month that they would deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit has already drawn protests from China that it would destabilize regional security.

The decision is the latest move to squeeze the increasingly isolated North Korea, but China worries the system's radar will be able to track its military capabilities. Russia also opposes the deployment.

The recent move by the South Korean side has harmed the foundation of mutual trust between the two countries, Wang was quoted by South Korean media as telling South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.

THAAD is most certainly not a simple technical issue, but an out-and-out strategic one, Wang said late on Sunday on the sidelines of a conference of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations in Vientiane.

Yun told Wang the deployment was aimed at protecting South Korea's security and that it would not damage China's security interests, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Cambodia’s prime minister has announced that China will give his government nearly $600 million in aid to support the country’s election infrastructure, education and health.

In a statement Friday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the aid was finalized after he met with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang at an Asia-Europe meeting in Mongolia.

China is a key ally and economic partner of impoverished Cambodia. It has provided millions of dollars in aid and investment over the past decade, granted it tariff-free status on hundreds of trade items and written off its debt.

In return, Cambodia supports China in international forums, including in Beijing’s ongoing dispute with other Southeast Asian countries in the South China sea.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday that his country should stop interfering and hyping up the South China Sea issue, as the dispute took center stage at a key regional summit in Mongolia.

China has refused to recognize Tuesday's ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague invalidating China's vast claims in the South China Sea and did not take part in the proceedings. It has reacted angrily to calls by Western countries and Japan for the decision to be adhered to.

Li told Abe that China's stance on the South China Sea was completely in line with international law.

Japan is not a state directly involved in the South China Sea issue, and thus should exercise caution in its own words and deeds, and stop hyping up and interfering, Li said.

Abe told Li that a rules-based international order must be respected. Abe and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had agreed the ruling must be observed.

Su Bin, 51, was charged with taking part in a years-long scheme by Chinese military officers to obtain sensitive military information. In addition to the 46-month prison term, a judge in US District Court in Los Angeles ordered Su to pay a $10,000 fine.

Su Bin's sentence is a just punishment for his admitted role in a conspiracy with hackers from the People's Liberation Army Air Force to illegally access and steal sensitive U.S. military information, John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

In an August 2014 indictment, prosecutors said Su traveled to the United States at least 10 times between 2008 and 2014 and worked with two unidentified co-conspirators based in China to steal the data.

The trio were accused of stealing plans relating to the C-17 military transport plane and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, and attempting to sell them to Chinese companies.

According to prosecutors, in pleading guilty Su admitted sending emails to his co-conspirators telling them which persons, companies and technologies to target with their hacking and translating the stolen material from English to Chinese.

In the meanwhile, Su is being lauded as patriotic in his home country. “We have no reliable source to identify whether Su has stolen these secrets and transferred them to the Chinese government. If he has, we are willing to show our gratitude and respect for his service to our country,” said an editorial in the Global Times, a nationalistic newspaper with close ties to the ruling Communist Party.

China has firmly rejected an international tribunal ruling that its claims to rights in the South China Sea have no legal basis.

President Xi Jinping said China's "territorial sovereignty and marine rights" in the seas would not be affected by the ruling "in any way".

But he insisted China was still "committed to resolving disputes" with its neighbours.

The Philippines brought the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The tribunal, based in the Hague, ruled that there was no evidence that China had historic rights to the waters or resources that fell within its "nine-dash line", and was violating the Philippine's sovereign rights with its operations there.

･ Key findings from the tribunal

･ China engineers coverage of South China Sea ruling

･ China's Island Factory

The ruling was made by an arbitration tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which both countries have signed.

It is binding but the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no powers of enforcement.

A Burglar of Haworthia is caught
　(Japan・Haworthia Society of Japan) 　(July 7, 2016)

On July 5, Chinese burglars entered the greenhouse of haworthia breeder in Shizuoka prefecture in Japan and tried to steal 200 of them which costed 12 million yen. One of the burglars was arrested.

The greenhouse has a high fence, but two burglars prepared a ladder and climbed over the fence. The security camera was installed, but they had the black masks on knowing that. As one of the family looked at the monitor screen by chance, they could call the police immediately.

The police officer caught one, but another escaped.

Chinese arrested on a charge of larceny of Haworthia ！ Fuji City, Shizuoka
　(Japan・blog) 　(April 21, 2016)

The police stations in Fujinomiya arrested a Chinese on the charge of theft and a building invasion. They stole approximately 200 of "haworthia" that was a popular small succulent plant for ornamental use.

Police said, they invaded the plastic greenhouse in Fujinomiya city on August 13, 2015, and stole approximately 200 of "haworthia". The Chinese suspect remains silent. Stolen haworthia is equivalent to 17, 800, 000 yen in total at the current price.

In Fujinomiya city, similar theft cases occurred successively until now. In addition, there were similar theft cases in other prefectures too. The prefectural police considers that there are plural accomplices and the stolen ones were already sold. Most of the Chinese organized crimes have been Cyberfraud or the acquisition of the card information until now. But, it is revealed that they are planning to extend the crimes to others.

Successive thefts of equipments by Chinese tourists
　(China・CHINANEWS) 　(December 25, 2015)

A manager of the guest‐house in New Zealand claim that equipments were stolen.

After the manager checked the room which a Chinese tourist checked out of, the manager found one fruit knife, five towels and five pairs of slippers disappeared.

China's government sought to downplay fears of conflict in the South China Sea after an influential state-run newspaper said on Tuesday that Beijing should prepare for military confrontation. China has kicked off a week of military drills in the South China Sea ahead of a hotly anticipated and potentially destabilising court ruling on its territorial claims in the region.

While it could not keep up with the United States in the short-term, "it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," the paper said.

At least two guided missile destroyers, the Shenyang and Ningbo, and one missile frigate, the Chaozhou, were reported to be among the vessels being deployed to the region, where China has overlapping territorial claims with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The exercises, inside a 100,000 square kilometre zone around the disputed Paracel Islands, come ahead of a ruling next week by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague over a long-standing territorial dispute between the Philippines and China.

Critics at home and abroad argue that Beijing’s increasingly assertive stances on issues such as South China Sea have damaged China’s standing in the world and are alienating potential allies.

A Chinese intelligence ship entered Japan's territorial waters early Wednesday morning, the first report of a Chinese navy vessel doing so in more than a decade.

A Japanese surveillance plane spotted the ship in waters west of Kuchinoerabu island before dawn, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko told reporters. It sailed out of Japan's waters about 90 minutes later, he said.

A U.N. agreement allows what is known as "innocent passage" by foreign ships through another country's waters, but Japan nonetheless expressed concern to China that this incident and other recent Chinese military activity is escalating tensions between the two countries.

The latest incident took place much closer to Japan's main islands, in waters south of Kyushu. The only previous time Japan had reported a Chinese naval vessel in its territorial waters was a submarine detected in 2004.

Satellite images of the South China Sea show man-made scarring of coral reefs on a scale heretofore unappreciated, much of which occurred between 2012 and late 2015. The scarring, resulting from widespread chopping of reefs by fishermen using propellers mounted on small boats in order to poach giant clam shells, is visible on recent images of at least 28 reefs in the Spratly and Paracel island groups, in territories disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

During a period in which Beijing has rapidly built military-capable bases on manufactured islands in the Spratlys, coinciding with the tenure of China’s President Xi Jinping, Tanmen fishermen have harvested prized giant clam shells on a booming industrial scale, traveling more than a thousand kilometers from their home port to shoals and reefs on the opposite side of the South China Sea to find them. The shell of the giant clam, which can grow to more than a meter in length, weigh over 200 kilograms, and live more than a hundred years, has become a “white gold of the sea” as its price has risen so dramatically in the past four years that many Chinese fishermen have abandoned pursuing standard food catches.

Although giant clams are an endangered species and trading in their shells is prohibited under international laws and nominally under Chinese law, the fishermen’s scraping of the coral reefs has in many cases occurred in the presence of Chinese Coast Guard vessels and on reefs occupied by the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Numerous Internet commentators in China have supported the activity, claiming, for example, that “Tanmen fishermen harvesting giant clams in the South China Sea are ensuring China’s sovereignty.” This may be true in a literal sense, as controversial land-filling operations by China at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs in 2014 and 2015 were immediately preceded by waves of chopper boats cutting their arc patterns across wide areas of the reefs, as if Chinese fishermen had been given the signal to take their bounty of giant clams before the reefs would be permanently buried under millions of tons of sand. Thus reef-chopping activities are of concern beyond the obvious environmental destruction, because they might indicate which spots are next in line for China’s island manufacturing.

AKB48 side announced on the official website, "There was a breach of contract in the administration side of SNH48, and we need to plan for reconsideration of the administration". All banners and ads about SNH48 which appeared on the AKB official site were eliminated in view of this present state."

On the other hand, SNH48 side also announced statement, "SNH48 is perfectly independent and is run independently. SNH48 and Japanese AKB48 are in a cooperative relationship, but so-called breach of contract does not exist. We will perform our all administration activity on schedule." SNH48 side emphasized that they would go their original way.

※　SNH48 (S.N.H. Forty-eight) is a Chinese idol girl group based in Shanghai, China, born in 2012. It is AKB48’s second sister group outside Japan. Following AKB48's creator Yasushi Akimoto's concept of "idols you can meet", the group features dozens of female members around the age of 20.

The issue of trash worsens in Chinese rural villages.

Piles of trash are seen everywhere in the Chinese rural villages. The residential wastes are thrown away in many places without permission, and bottles of the liquor and plastic bags are scattered in the wheat fields.

The trash in Chinese rural villages a year is approximately 120 million tons. Basic infrastructure protecting environment is not maintained in the villages. The trash is left in the vacant lands and just becomes the mountain.

In March the environmental protection department of the Chinese government pointed out that environmental pollution moved from the eastern part to the middle western district. In other words it means that it spread from the urban area through the rural villages.

When I approached a pile of trash in a village, there were no tree and weed around there. There is a bad smell there, and the garbage bags fly in the sky, and innumerable flies and mosquitoes fly. A neighboring housewife said, "Dozens of garbage wagons come here every day, and have thrown away trash for these past dozens of years".

A primary school in Beijing's Xicheng District has implemented an emergency health and safety plan after some students allegedly became sick due to a renovated playground, the Beijing Morning Post reports.

Students at Beijing No.2 Experimental Elementary School's Baiyunlu campus have exhibited bloody noses, dizziness, coughs and rashes since April this year, and the student's parents believe the symptoms were caused by gases emitted from the renovated playground.

The China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC) is examining any gases released by the school playground, with results expected in one week's time.

Relevant authorities of the Beijing Xicheng District have also established a working group to investigate possible causes.

The emergency plan, to be implemented while the testing is taking place, will equip all classrooms with air purifiers and require green plants to be planted on the school playground.

The school is still open to students. Students are also allowed to study at home and the school will make up the missed lessons, the plan details.

The emergency plan was published on the school's official website on June 6, and will be in effect until the test results are released.

Dozens of Chinese students at the University of Iowa are being investigated for cheating in their online courses, according to a news report from Reuters.

UI officials announced last week that they were investigating possible academic misconduct involving at least 30 students enrolled in online courses. The university had been alerted to the possible cheating through ProctorU, a national proctoring service that provides identity verification for online courses.

ProctorU alerted UI that the students may have attempted to cheat by having other people take their exams in one or more courses.

The university is investigating each case individually. If a student is found to have cheated, disciplinary action could include expulsion or suspension.

In a story posted Wednesday, Reuters reports that most, if not all, of the UI students under investigation are Chinese nationals who stand accused of cheating in online versions of at least three courses.

Three of those Chinese students admitted to Reuters that they hired Chinese-run online companies to take exams for them. There are many such services that offer to help foreign students at U.S. colleges do much of the work required for their online classes — everything from writing papers to taking exams.

UI officials said they will not provide any further identifying information about the students, citing federal privacy laws.

On May 8, Reuters reports, UI sent a letter recommending expulsion to a fourth Chinese student who allegedly had other people take his midterms for him.

"We are unable to be sure that you will not cheat in the future, since your past actions call your future behavior into question,” the letter reportedly reads.

In general, if an international student is expelled, he or she has 10 business days to appeal the decision to the dean of students. That appeal is then transmitted to the provost for review, and if the student is unsatisfied, he or she can appeal the case to the board of regents for a final decision.

Once expelled, international students face possible deportation under U.S. immigration law.

UI had 4,540 international students enrolled at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year, with 2,797 of those students coming from China. The university's Chinese enrollment has more than doubled in the past five years, and the bulk of those students pay full tuition.

With 1,796 enrolled students, students from China also made up the largest cohort of the 4,041 international students at Iowa State University at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year.

At the University of Northern Iowa, Chinese students account for 144 of the 616 international students at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year. With 211 students, the largest cohort of international students at UNI comes from Saudi Arabia.

On June 27, President Obama visited Hiroshima, the bombed area. And he sued nuclear abolition with the speech for 17 minutes.

It was whether President Obama would "apologize or not" for having thrown down the A-bombs that the Chinese media paid attention.

If the United States that is the victorious nation apologizes to Japan that is the defeated nation, that may weaken the situation of Japan as "the assailant country", and that may impress people that Japan is "the damaged country".

Obama's speech threw such a message that "Both an assailant and the victim must be forward looking each other".

This is undesirable for China, because China may lose the Chinese diplomacy card which continues making Japan "a criminal of World War II" in future.

So on May 27 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang gave a warning, "it was worthwhile that the victims are sympathized, but the assailant can not evade its responsibility forever".

On the other hand, Sunao Tsuboi, the representative committee of Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations said shaking hands with President Obama, "I do not blame the United States that dropped A-bombs".

Chinese may take Japanese a vague people who shake hands without demanding apology. But you cannot turn up page 1 of the new history forever if not future-oriented.

I feel irritated about why Chinese can not think of Hibakusha, A-bomb victims in Hiroshima who desires peace without apology.

China's visiting foreign minister publicly berated a Canadian journalist on Wednesday for asking a question about his country's human rights record.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was "irresponsible" of a journalist from the web outlet iPolitics to ask about human rights and the jailing of a Canadian, Kevin Garratt, who is charged with espionage.

Wang appeared visibly angry as he delivered the scolding in the lobby of Global Affairs headquarters at a joint news conference with Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.

Your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance ... I don't know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable, Wang said through a translator.

Other people don't know better than the Chinese people about the human rights condition in China and it is the Chinese people who are in the best situation, in the best position to have a say about China's human rights situation, he continued.

So I would like to suggest to you that please don't ask questions in such an irresponsible manner. We welcome goodwill suggestions but we reject groundless or unwarranted accusations.

The Chinese tycoon who recently took a swipe at Disney has found himself with some explaining to do.

Wang Jianlin, the billionaire chairman of real estate and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, publicly slammed Disney (DIS) last week over its giant new Shanghai resort that's due to open next month. He questioned the U.S. company's financial prospects in China and suggested it was "cloning" its existing intellectual property rather than innovating.

Fast forward to the opening this past weekend of Wang's company's massive new entertainment complex in Nanchang, a city roughly 350 miles southwest of Shanghai. Among the cast of costumed characters spotted at the complex were some distinctly Disney-looking ones: Snow White, Captain America and a stormtrooper from Star Wars.

Wanda and Disney are both competing for Chinese consumers' increased spending on leisure and entertainment. But the two companies also cooperate in some areas.

We have a good relationship with Wanda, particularly in the film distribution business, including in the United States, a Disney spokeswoman said. "We are perplexed that Mr. Wang would choose to do public battle with us, or attempt to undermine our business in any way."

The people apparently dressed as Disney characters were seen in non-ticketed areas of the Wanda complex, according to The Associated Press and Bloomberg.

The non-Wanda characters were operated by individual stores within Wanda Mall. They do not represent Wanda, the Chinese company said.

The Chinese company's giant complex, dubbed Wanda City, also features an outdoor amusement park, an indoor theme park and hotels.

Disney's new mega theme park in Shanghai, which dwarfs the company's other Asian parks in Hong Kong and Tokyo, is set to open June 16. It includes two hotels, a shopping district and six themed lands.

Wanda, meanwhile, is planning to open 15 Wanda City projects in China by 2020. "One tiger cannot compete with a pack of wolves," Wang said in his comments about Disney last week.

As everyone knows, China aims at the superpower showing the leadership such as the United States. However, contrary to such an aim, Vietnam shows intention to strengthen relations with the United States far from showing respect to China.

What is the difference between China and the United States that wins respect of Vietnam? How can China become the superpower such as the United States?

Japan is the greatest help country for Vietnam. Japan accounts for more than 30% of various foreign supports for Vietnam. The supports are used for the traffic projects, the environmental protection projects, the electricity projects and the construction of the farm village infrastructure mainly. It is welcomed in Vietnam and is required. The Japanese products are popular in Vietnam.

If a person who wants to be a boss cannot give the followers profit, it is natural that followers are not faithful to the boss. Vietnam profits from trade with the United States, and the trade of the two countries is in the relation to make up for each other rather than competitive relationship. The trade deficit of Vietnam to China is huge. Because the industrial kinds of two countries are similar, Vietnam can not profit in the Chinese market.

This situation is seen not only in Vietnam, but also in Southeast Asian countries. During more than 30 years after the reform in China, the Chinese trade for Southeast Asian countries was always in the black.

However, this is not at all the desirable situation for China that wants to be the superpower. China can get respect from the Southeast Asian countries only after China bring the Southeast Asian countries profit. This is responsibility of the country which wants to become the superpower.

Indonesia's navy said Monday it fired shots at a Chinese trawler when it refused to stop fishing in Indonesian waters, and then seized the vessel and its eight crewmembers.

An Indonesian frigate intercepted the trawler on Friday near the Natuna islands in Indonesia's exclusive economic zone, which overlaps with the southernmost reaches of the South China Sea, said navy western fleet command spokesman Maj. Budi Amin.

Amin said the frigate fired shots which hit the stern of the fishing vessel, Gui Bei Yu-27088, after it ignored repeated warnings to stop. He said no one was injured.

This arrest was made to show the world that Indonesia will take firm action against ships that violate our territory, Amin said. He said Indonesia followed standard international procedures in dealing with foreign ships entering its territory, including providing warnings with flags, voices and warning shots.

China claims most of the South China Sea.

Tensions between the two countries flared in March when Indonesia intercepted a Chinese fishing vessel off the Natuna islands. A Chinese coast guard vessel collided with the trawler as it was being towed, allowing it to escape.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, has taken a tough stance against illegal fishing since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo took office in 2014.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti has overseen the capture of nearly 200 foreign fishing boats accused of fishing illegally.

A total of 174 foreign fishing boats have been blown up. The fates of 20 others await court rulings.

Jellyfish - beach goers' nightmare, coastal China's favourite appetizer　　　　　　　　　　　

Police in eastern China have raided two fake jellyfish workshops, saying more than 10 tonnes is thought to have made its way into local food markets.

Police said the fake jellyfish had been made by mixing chemicals, adding that checks showed high levels of aluminium.

The syndicates made more than 170,000 yuan (￡18,100; $26,100) in profits in a year of production, they added.

Huzhou municipal police in Zhejiang province, which is leading the investigation said they first found a workshop run by a Mr Yuan, who made and sold the fake jellyfish at a farmer's market.

Mr Yuan then led detectives to a bigger workshop in Changzhou city in neighbouring Jiangsu province run by a Mr Jia who had taught him the "art" of faking jellyfish. He was detained alongside other syndicate members. The arrests were made in late April, but police only made it public late last week

This is not the first fake jellyfish bust.

In November 2014, Huzhou police, again, caught three individuals selling fake jellyfish made from a similar chemical mixture.

In October 2013, police in central Hunan province broke another jellyfish syndicate.

That group is said to have made 40 tonnes of fake jellyfish, and the ringleader was sentenced to six months in jail.

It's no secret that Chinese tourists have made a bad reputation for themselves as of late, no thanks to their "uncivilised" behaviour when abroad.

The list of uncivilised behaviour from Chinese tourists sighted abroad include vandalising iconic scenes or artifacts (e.g. climbing cherry blossom trees), unruly conduct in public spaces (e.g. clamouring to pile food up in buffet lines), lack of hygiene in public facilities (e.g. littering, doing the number two in airplane toilet sinks, letting their kids pee on airplane carpets), and many others.

It seems like they are no different back at home in China. Case in point - the USD5.5 billion (RM22 billion) Shanghai Disneyland is already seeing the effects of unruly Chinese tourists, and it's not even officially opened yet!

Nobody can stop visitors - mostly locals - from leaving the place filled with trash and scratching graffiti onto freshly-painted lamp posts.
A visitor letting her daughter urinate in full view of everyone.	Rubbish was thrown haphazardly on the floor of the bathroom.

The Queen has been filmed saying Chinese officials were "very rude" during last year's state visit by President Xi Jinping.

She was discussing their treatment of Britain's ambassador to China with a senior police officer at a Buckingham Palace garden party on Tuesday.

The Queen's remarks were filmed as she was introduced to Metropolitan Police Commander Lucy D'Orsi, who the monarch is told had overseen security during President Xi's visit to the UK in October.

She is heard to respond: "Oh, bad luck."

An official went on to tell the Queen that Commander D'Orsi had been "seriously, seriously undermined by the Chinese, but she managed to hold her own and remain in command".

Commander D'Orsi told the Queen: "I was the Gold Commander so I'm not sure whether you knew, but it was quite a testing time for..."

I did, the Queen said.

Commander D'Orsi continued: "It was at the point they walked out of Lancaster House and told me that the trip was off, that I felt..."

The Queen said: "They were very rude to the ambassador."

Commander D'Orsi replied: "They were... it was very rude and undiplomatic I thought."

The Queen described it as "extraordinary".

Blunt talking, in public, is normally the preserve of the Queen's husband.

In the 80s, Prince Philip warned some British students in China that they'd get "slitty eyes" if they stayed there too long.

And Prince Charles - who's avoided two Chinese state banquets in the UK - described some officials in a leaked journal as "appalling old waxworks".

Chinese experts of agricultural chemical residue carried out a comparison experiment by using equipments. They concluded that the washing effect of water is higher than that of rice water (water left over from washing rice) or salt or sodium bicarbonate.

In addition, 15-60% of agricultural chemical residue was able to be eliminated when they washed vegetables under running water after having dipped them into the tap water for 10-60 minutes.

60% of agricultural chemical residue disappeared when they expose them in sunlight for approximately five minutes. You can eat vegetables in spring and autumn at ease, because there are few insects and it does not need the pesticide dispersion then. You should wash the vegetables before cutting them, because nourishment begins to flow when you wash them after cutting.

Revelations from Mossack Fonseca are unwelcome to Xi Jinping and his colleagues　

In most countries there have been storms of protest as a result of revelations of financial shenanigans in the “Panama papers”, as a hoard of documents from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm, have been dubbed.

Angry publics have been demanding explanations from wealthy people implicated, or the resignations of political leaders named. But not in China.

The files show that nine of the country’s most prominent families?including a relative of President Xi Jinping?own or have owned secret offshore companies, mostly based in the British Virgin Islands. Official media have largely kept quiet about this and censors have removed any mention of the scandal online. On April 5th a foreign ministry spokesman called allegations relating to Chinese leaders “unfounded”, but refused to discuss the matter further. Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Communist Party, did carry a sketchy report on the papers but made no mention of what they suggested about the financial affairs of prominent Chinese. Its English-language edition dismissed the matter as “a new means for the ideology-allied Western nations to strike a blow to non-Western political elites”.

The papers show extensive Chinese ownership of secret offshore companies. President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law, Deng Jiagui, a property magnate, was listed as the sole director of three companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. In 2012 Bloomberg, a media group, said it had found evidence that Mr Deng and his wife, Qi Qiaoqiao, Mr Xi’s older sister, had run businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars. By that time, however?shortly before Mr Xi came to power?the companies in question were no longer active. Two other members of the country’s highest decision-making body, the Politburo’s Standing Committee, also have relatives connected with Mossack Fonseca. One is Zhang Gaoli, a deputy prime minister. Mr Zhang’s son-in-law owned three firms in the British Virgin Islands. The other is Liu Yunshan, the man in charge of ideology and propaganda, whose daughter-in-law owned one such company.

In all, the papers show, family members of eight current or former members of the Politburo Standing Committee have owned secret offshore accounts. They include the relatives of three party chiefs (Mr Xi and two late predecessors, Hu Yaobang and Mao) as well as of one former prime minister (Li Peng) and a former vice-president (Zeng Qinghong). Another is Jia Qinglin, who retired from the Standing Committee in 2013. The papers also provide more detail of the offshore dealings of Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, a former Politburo member and rival of Mr Xi. Both Ms Gu and Mr Bo are now in prison, Ms Gu for murder and her husband for corruption and abuse of power.

Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, south China. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- China said on Friday it is unrealistic to force China to concede or accept the verdict of the South China Sea arbitration case as a fait accompli.

No matter what the verdict will be in the arbitration case initiated by the Philippines, it will be unlawful and invalid. China will not accept nor recognize it, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei at a daily press briefing.

The idea that China will be forced to concede or accept a fait accompli through the verdict will turn out to be unrealistic, Hong said.

China is determined to safeguard territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, said the spokesperson.

China will also uphold the international rule of law and maintain the integrity and authority of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he said.

Manila unilaterally initiated an arbitration case against China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in early 2013 under UNCLOS. The verdict will probably be announced in May or June.

China has repeatedly said it will not accept nor participate in the process.

The South China Sea disputes between China and the Philippines are over territorial and maritime delimitation.

China declared in 2006 that arbitration and other compulsory dispute settlement procedures do not apply to issues such as maritime delimitation, which was outlined in Article 298 of UNCLOS.

A military vessel is sailing for waters near a Japan-controlled atoll in the western Pacific, keeping a distance from two patrol boats that departed from Kaohsiung on Sunday to protect Taiwanese fishing boats operating there.

The move comes after a Taiwanese fishing boat was seized on April 25 by the Japan Coast Guard while operating in waters some 150 nautical miles from the Okinotori atoll.

A military source said the Navy has sent a Lafayette-class frigate, but "the military vessel will not appear on the front line, though it can quickly come to the rescue in the event of any contingencies."

After arriving in waters around the Okinotori atoll, the frigate will sail for one week before being replaced by another Lafayette-class frigate until the end of May, the source said.

The choice of the Lafayette-class vessel was made because it is considered to be less of a combat ship and therefore less provocative, the source added.

Military spokesman Luo Shou-he (羅紹和) said that as a general practice the military follows government policy and deploys military vessels based on the principle of the "Coast Guard protecting fisherman, and the Navy supporting the Coast Guard."

Two patrol boats set off from Kaohsiung on Sunday for waters near the Japan-controlled atoll in the western Pacific to protect Taiwanese fishing boats operating there.

The two -- a nearly 2,000-ton Coast Guard Administration (CGA) vessel and a ship belonging to the Fishery Agency -- departed from the southern port city for waters near Okinotori atoll after Japan recently detained a Taiwanese fishing boat in the area.

Taiwan sent patrol boats after its fishing boat, the "Tung Sheng Chi No. 16," was seized on April 25 by the Japan Coast Guard while operating in waters some 150 nautical miles from Okinotori.

The boat and its crew were released on April 26 only after the owner of the boat paid 6 million Japanese yen (US$54,442) as a security deposit demanded by Japanese authorities, pending legal procedures.

Japan claims a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone around the tiny atoll, but Taiwan argues that Okinotori is a reef rather than an island -- as Japan defines it -- and is therefore not entitled to anything more than a 500-meter "security zone" around it.

Taiwan lodged a strong protest with Japan, and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) instructed relevant government agencies to step up protection for local fishermen operating in waters near the atoll.

Okinotori is about 860 nautical miles east of Eluanbi, the southernmost point of Taiwan.

The first : "social order supported by sincerity and trust."
In a theme park, nobody goes to the handicapped person's gate that you can pass easily to skimp on a ticket rate. So the theme park does not have a person in charge at the gate.

The second : "food safety supported by sincerity and trust."
You Chinese who worry about stomach ache if you eat sushi and sashimi in Japan ! Congratulations if you get a stomach ache ! You will become very rich.
When you pay more attention to the Chinese food safety problem, you should be concerned about it very much.

The third : "the resident registration system supported by sincerity and trust."
The resident registration in Japan is very easy. If you widen the map that individual houses are written and point the house you live in, it is almost completed. I asked the person in charge, "What would you do if somebody cheated with it?" The person said, "You could not receive the documents such as medical insurance certificates if you did such a thing. Why do you need to cheat?"

The fourth : "sincerity and trust are the creed of the life"
You turn into "insensibility" when you live in Japan for a long term. When I was in a restaurant, I put a wallet on the dining table and went to the restroom. In spite of the wallet being Louis Vuitton or Dunhill.

France leads the world in the field of fashion, and many foreign students come from all over the world to learn French fashion.

Experiences of a Chinese columnist resident in France：

At a school connected with fashion in Paris, both the most superior teacher and students are Japanese.

About the foreign students who just begin studying in France, in the first year the big differences are not seen in nationality. But in the second year the level of the Japanese students are suddenly improved. Most of the Japanese students throw themselves into studying seriously and the students of other countries cannot imitate that.

French teachers estimate that "Japanese students are quiet, well-behaved and polite, and they don't cheat on the examination". On the other hand, the Chinese students are not often well-mannered. The Chinese sometimes shows the "non-civilization" manner. Some Chinese students open their big mouths in their classes and yawn.

The Chinese students do not get the high evaluation in France. You must not forget that you have a signboard "China" on your back in the foreign countries.

On April 16, the earthquake of 7.3 happened in Kumamoto , and many buildings collapsed, but I found a particularly interesting thing in that.

The partially destroyed Uto-city central office building had caught the judgment "It is more likely to suffer big damage by an earthquake of a little over six seismic intensity degree" by an earthquake-resistant diagnosis. Why did they not take measures of it immediately although they knew that the building could not bear a severe earthquake? It was because the finance of the city was severe and they gave priority to building of the schools.

Japanese Ministry of Education says "The public school facilities are places keeping the lives of children who carry the Japanese future" in the document "The promotion of the earthquake resistance of public school facilities". "The earthquake resistance plan" contributes to the fact that the school buildings in Japan are strong.

At the same time, schools function as the safest refuge places at the time of the disaster.

I am shaken heartily by this Japanese mind when I watch a general Japanese school such as the Noah's ark. "The public school facilities keep the lives of children." These simple and profound words really deserve a standing ovation.

Li Miao, the chief of Tokyo branch of phoenix TV reported Kumamoto earthquake. She has been living in Japan for 19 years. She appeared in a TV program of Japanese NHK and entered the phoenix TV in 2007.

The earthquake victims received a relief supply forming a line and keeping order in spite of only one rice ball.

How difficult is it to continue keeping order under the situation that they suffer from? Japanese people don't quarrel or bawl out under the situation that aftershocks continue without cease, uneasiness influences people and they cannot receive relief materials enough. Japanese people can create order and keep tranquility even under the very severe situation.

The restroom of the refuge is used very cleanly, and the slippers of the restroom are put properly. I was astonished in well-ordered Japanese. Furthermore, even in the middle of the disaster, classification of the garbage is carried out well.

Li Miao	Line	Restroom	Classification of the garbage

4On April 10, Nippon Badminton Association gave indefinite competition suspension disposal for Kento Momota who was a member of National badminton Team and decided not to recommend him to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games formally, because he gambled in an illegal casino.

On 11th the NTT East Japan where he belonged to gave self-restraint disposal of activity outside for a half year to the badminton club, and it gave disposal of attendance stop for 30 days to Momota.

Lin Dan who was a men's singles gold medalist of Beijing Olympics Games and London Olympic Games mentioned the Momota's gambling.

"I admire Japanese spirit very much. I think that it is the greatest point of Japan to give the fixed punishment for anyone who violates the law of the country."

Germany, Japan and the United States have words such as "craftsman mind". There are many companies making high-quality products. It is just these days that the word "craftsman mind" has begun to attract attention in China. There are few companies that have "craftsman mind" in China. Why?

1. "Chinese think physical labor is inferior to headwork".
   The work to use the body for is looked down on in China. The Japanese farmhouses produce the value-added expensive brand crops using "brains", but it is rare that you watch such crops in China.
   
   
2. "China does not have the history and tradition of "craftsman mind".
   They do not devote themselves about one thing, and they want to gain easily.
   
   
3. They even do wrong to gain in China, and the China market is filled with much counterfeit brands and disguised foods now.
   Chinese do not trust the products of the own country, and purchase overseas products in large quantities.

Police in China briefly detained prominent human rights lawyer Ge Yongxi over posts he made on social media about the leaked Panama Papers.

Mr Ge was taken from his Guangzhou home overnight but released late on Friday.

He had posted a picture of the Panama Canal, with photoshopped images of President Xi Jinping and two former Chinese leaders in the picture.

The Panama Papers showed that relatives of several Chinese leaders had links to offshore firms.

Mr Ge, a high-profile civil rights campaigner, was last detained 10 months ago, then released after a public petition, the BBC's Shanghai correspondent Robin Brant reports.

He was detained this time for "insulting other people".

Written promise

Mr Ge said police had asked him where he got the picture from and made him write a letter of assurance promising not to post the picture again.

He told the BBC he had been released at 21:40 (13:40 GMT), after 22 hours in detention.

Dozens of human rights lawyers had gathered outside the public security bureau on Friday to show their support for Mr Ge.

The incident comes just a day after the US criticised Beijing for what it called a "severe crackdown" on lawyers linked to human rights campaigners.

Last July, the Chinese authorities launched what appeared to be an orchestrated campaign, when more than 280 human rights lawyers and activists - along with their associates - were summoned or detained or just disappeared.

While many have since been released, others were formally arrested or charged with subversion.

Chinese government advances aggressive overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises in recent years.

The cases that Chinese companies purchase Japan and the American companies are increasing, but still there are not many cases that "Going Out" (advancements overseas policy) put success in, and there are a lot of cases that they failed in.

There are few success cases of the overseas advance by the Chinese companies. The amount of Chinese direct foreign investments in 2015 reaches 118, 020 million dollars, and it increased 14.7% compared with last year, but China money is not welcomed in comparison with Japan.

The reason is "difference in values". The Japanese money is welcomed in comparison with Chinese money. Japan not only makes investments, but also it conveys techniques and brings about the employment for the local people. China takes large quantities of Chinese workers to the foreign countries and does not bring the employment there.

US Department of State released “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015”.

It criticized China as follows.

Repression and coercion markedly increased during the year against organizations and individuals involved in civil and political rights advocacy and public interest and ethnic minority issues.

The crackdown on the legal community was particularly severe, as individual lawyers and law firms that handled cases the government deemed “sensitive” were targeted for harassment and detention, with hundreds of lawyers and law associates interrogated, investigated, and in many cases detained in secret locations for months without charges or access to attorneys or family members. Officials continued to harass, intimidate, and prosecute family members and associates to retaliate against rights advocates and defenders. Individuals and groups regarded as politically sensitive by authorities faced tight restrictions on their freedom to assemble, practice religion, and travel. Authorities resorted to extralegal measures, such as enforced disappearance and strict house arrest, including house arrest of family members, to prevent public expression of critical opinions. Five men working in Hong Kong’s publishing industry disappeared between October and December from Thailand, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen; it was believed that PRC security officials were responsible for their disappearances.

Authorities continued to censor and tightly control public discourse on the internet and in print and other media.

There was severe official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, association, and assembly of Uighurs in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and of Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas. These minorities continued to face severe restrictions on movement. Officials also approved expedited judicial procedures and in some cases mass trials for Uighur terrorism suspects in the XUAR. Rights abuses in minority areas peaked around high-profile events, such as the visit of foreign officials, national meetings, commemorations, and high-profile trials.

Many foreign tourists to visit to Japan increase. In April they come in the famous place of the cherry trees. However, it is a manner of the flower viewing to become the problem.

The Chinese embassy (Tokyo) announces "the instructions" about the flower viewing in Japan for Chinese tourists who are increasing rapidly. They are exceptional attentions such as "Do not step in the territory of another person" or "Do not shake a tree and drop petals". It becomes a trend in China to enjoy flower viewing in trips to Japan from a few years ago.

The Chinese flocking with a rush in Osakajo park want to touch cherry blossoms, pull them near their faces and take photos. "All the Chinese love nature. We long for beautiful things. We touch them in China too." (middle-aged Chinese woman); "I want to show dynamism like spring. It is uncool only to stand near them and take photos."(young Chinese woman)

A woman who picked blossoms and made a hair ornament with them pretended ignorance and said, "They were on the ground. I picked them up." It may be the Chinese national traits. They tell lies rather than excuses. The petals are gone, and the sprays are tattered.

They break sprays	They pull cherry blossoms	They stamp sprays

The aggravation of Japanese feelings for China lasts after 2012. The artificial island creation by China in the South China Sea and the confrontation by China and Japan about Senkaku Islands are in the background.

Su Bin should be showed ‘gratitude and respect’ if he has indeed stolen military secrets, says Global Times editorial

One of China’s most bellicose newspapers has come to the defence of an admitted Chinese cyberhacker, a contradiction of Beijing’s official position that the country neither condones nor engages in computer espionage.

Global Times, an arm of the Communist party’s People’s Daily newspaper, published an editorial late Thursday headlined “Su Bin deserves respect whether guilty or innocent” that praised Su Bin, a Chinese national who pled guilty on Wednesday in a Californian federal court to conspiring to hack into the computer networks of US defence contractors.

“We have no reliable source to identify whether Su has stolen these secrets and transferred them to the Chinese government. If he has, we are willing to show our gratitude and respect for his service to our country,” stated the editorial.

“On the secret battlefield without gunpowder, China needs special agents to gather secrets from the US. As for Su, be he recruited by the Chinese government or driven by economic benefits, we should give him credit for what he is doing for the country.”

Su, a multimillionaire living in Vancouver, was first accused of cyberhacking in 2014, but successfully fought extradition to the US until March 2016. He then consented to go to the US in exchange for a plea deal limiting his sentence to a maximum of five years in prison.

As part of the deal, Su confessed to being part of a cyber-spying conspiracy that started in 2008 and continued until 2014. Su admitted acting as a scout for two hackers based in China. The US Justice Department said these two hackers worked for the Chinese military, according to court filings reported by the Globe and Mail of Canada and other newspapers.

Su admitted helping these hackers identify the vulnerable databases and documents of US contractors. According to court filings, the conspirators were particularly interested in schematics for C-17 transport planes, made by Boeing, and F-22s and F-35 fighter planes, made by Lockheed Martin.

Despite widespread scepticism from cyber espionage experts, China has consistently denied that it engages in computer spying. “Chinese government agencies and military … never conduct any kind of network-hacking operation,” a foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said in January.

Argentina's coast guard says it has chased and sunk a Chinese vessel which was fishing illegally in Argentine waters on Monday.

In a statement, the coast guard said one of its vessels had fired warning shots at the Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010 as it headed for international waters.

The coast guard said it had first tried to raise a response by radio. All those on board were rescued, it said.

Illegal fishing is frequently a problem in the region.

On several occasions, the offending ship performed manoeuvres designed to force a collision with the coast guard, putting at risk not only its own crew but coast guard personnel, who were then ordered to shoot parts of the vessel, the coast guard statement said (in Spanish)

The incident comes despite Argentina's relations with China growing closer in recent years.

The coast guard said it had reported the incident to Chinese diplomatic representatives in Argentina.

It is the Japanese Shinkansen that is drawn with Chinese national flag, skyscrapers of Shanghai and the main stadium of BEIJING OLYMPIC 2008 (the Bird's Nest). It is the type that is called "pro-300" used in the Tokaido Shinkansens once. It does not exist in China.

Words to call for "original technology development and inventive ideas" with the slogan called "Chinese dream" that Chairman Xi Jinping advocates were written in this newspaper ad which Chinese Communist Party Beijing City committee gave late last month.

People say the designer ignorant about railroad circumstances might have quoted it from nets without permission and investigating it thoroughly.

This is not the first misuse of the photograph of the Shinkansen. In February, 2016, CCTV(China Central Television) used the Japanese Shinkansen for the background image in their special program.

A Vietnamese fishing boat was reportedly ambushed and looted by a China Coast Guard vessel off Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago on Sunday.

Colonel Dinh Duc Lien, political commissar of Cang Ky Ha Border Gate’s border defense in the central province of Quang Nam, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday that a Vietnamese fishing boat was attacked and robbed of all its fishing gear by a China Coast Guard vessel.

The fishing boat belongs to fishermen in Tam Quang Commune, Nui Thanh District, Quang Nam Province.

According to Lien, fishermen aboard the boat reported the incident to have occured at 12: 30pm on March 6.

The boat, coded Qna-91.939 and owned by Vo Quang Thai, was carrying 10 sailors and fishing within Vietnam’s territory near Hoang Sa at the time, when China Coast Guard vessel number 46101 approached and took control of Thai’s boat.

Eleven men from the China Coast Guard ship boarded Thai’s boat and stole food and oil, as well as destroying all of their fishing gear and two basket boats.

Lien said the fishermen have not provided estimations of the total loss.

The fishing boat arrived at the An Hoa estuary in Nam Thanh District on the evening of March 7, and investigations followed on the morning of March 8.

“After receiving the information, we reported to Quang Nam Border Defense and local authorities to send representatives to the scene on March 8 for damage assessment,” Lien added.

Japanese woman Kaori Hirohata (47 years old) was killed and was found dead in Narashino-shi, Chiba, Japan in June, 2013. The prefectural police investigation headquarters arrested the suspect Xiaochun Yang (50, Chinese) for a murder charge in March 3.

According to the prefectural police, Ms. Hirohata was in the middle of going to her office for a night duty on foot, and she was found falling on her back the next day. There was the plural subcutaneous hemorrhage that was considered to be hit. Her bag was scattered near by, and there was no cash in her wallet. The suspect Yang who lived near those days surfaced from the analyses of the pictures of the security camera and the property left of the criminal.

The United States accused China on Thursday of raising tensions in the South China Sea by its apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said commercial satellite imagery suggested "very recent" placement of missiles on Woody Island in the Paracel island chain that went against China's pledge not to militarize the South China Sea.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, the first senior Western official to visit China since the reports appeared, said she raised the issue of the South China Sea's militarization in talks in Beijing on Thursday.

Bishop referred to comments by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington last year that China did not intend to militarize islands in the South China Sea, and added: "We certainly hold China to that and that's been reiterated to me."

When the Chinese foreign students need a recommender in application of a scholarship, they ask "the official" on high position socially to write a blurb, but it is "completely nonsense" in Japan.

Japanese educational institutions make much of scientific ability, the scientific position and results in the studies as the condition of the recommender. They are not the titles to have nothing to do with the arts and sciences. If the recommender is a professor or a teacher at the school, the blurb will be read properly.

Furthermore, the relations of the recommender and the foreign student is important. If the recommender is not a person understanding the applicant well, the blurb will not be made much of.

Persons deciding the scholarship for students "is the dean or the higher staffs".

Journalist Li Xin’s disappearance is latest case in which critics of China’s Communist leaders have gone missing in Thailand

The wife of a Chinese journalist and campaigner who vanished in Thailand last month says her husband has resurfaced in mainland China and is being held by police at an undisclosed location.

Li Xin, a former journalist at the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, went missing in January as he prepared to travel from Thailand to Laos.

Li, 37, had fled China for India last October, allegedly after Chinese security agents tried to coerce him into spying on fellow activists. Early last month he arrived in Thailand, which is home to a large community of Chinese political exiles and where he had hoped to claim asylum.

Li’s disappearance was the latest in a spate of cases in which critics of China’s Communist party leaders have mysteriously vanished in Thailand or been deported by the country’s pro-Beijing junta.

In November two well-known Chinese dissidents, Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei, who had sought refuge in Thailand after incurring Beijing’s wrath, were repatriated, sparking condemnation from rights groups and the UN.

The previous month, Gui Minhai, a Hong Kong bookseller who specialised in sensational tomes about the private lives of China’s leaders, vanished from his beachfront flat in the Thai town of Pattaya. Gui reappeared last month, claiming in a “confession” broadcast by Chinese state television that he had voluntarily handed himself over to police over a hit-and-run accident that he said had taken place more than a decade ago.

Gui’s daughter said she believed her father had been abducted and forcibly returned to China.

On Wednesday, He Fangmei, Li Xin's wife, told the Guardian she feared that her husband had suffered a similar fate.

“He said: ‘This is Li Xin. I’m in China. I’m fine. Don’t worry. I came back to China willingly to face investigation,’” his wife said. “I asked: ‘Why do you have to face an investigation if you didn’t commit any crime?’”

He, who is four months pregnant with the couple’s second child, rejected her husband’s claim that he had voluntarily returned to China. “I do not believe it. I 100% do not believe it,” she said. “I felt he was forced to say those words, that he said them against his will. Each time I tried to ask him a question he interrupted me.”

Human rights activists have expressed outrage at the apparent internationalisation of Chinese repression under President Xi Jinping. They believe that dissidents being returned to China are likely to have been coerced or forced into doing so by Beijing’s agents.

Writing in the Guardian last December, Amnesty International’s east Asia director, Nicholas Bequelin, accused China of slowly eroding “one of international law’s key principles: the prohibition against returning people to a place where they could face persecution or other serious human rights violations”.

He wrote: “Many, like Thailand’s military rulers, but also the governments in Cambodia, Pakistan or central Asian countries, appear all too eager to help ? in clear contravention of their own international obligations to protect those seeking refuge.”

London has been cozying up to Beijing in recent years in the hope of attracting Chinese investment, but in one leafy corner of England the love-in has turned to acrimony.

Long-time members of Wentworth, a hallowed golf club in the affluent county of Surrey just west of London, accuse the new Chinese owners of using an eye-watering fee hike to get rid of them and turn the club into a preserve of the global ultra-rich.

At issue is a plan by Beijing-based property and investment firm Reign wood Group, which bought Wentworth in 2014, that would require members to pay 100,000 pounds ($146,000) to remain part of the club and double maximum annual fees to 16,000 pounds.

My own personal feeling is that they don't want us, said Michael Fleming, a local dental surgeon and Wentworth member for 28 years who has just ended a term as club captain. As for many members, the club has been central to his family's social life.

The club says it plans to invest an initial 20 million pounds to improve facilities, with 10 million being spent in the next two years, as it pursues its vision to make Wentworth "the world's premier private golf and country club".

Home to three 18-hole courses and to a striking crenellated clubhouse, Wentworth is famed throughout the golfing world for an old association with the Ryder Cup and as the venue for the annual BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour.

Fleming said he expected about 90 percent of members to leave the club if Reignwood's changes come into force as planned in April 2017, and a significant number had already left.

If they do have this exclusive membership, the club is going to be like a morgue. There will be nobody there. One of the essential elements of a decent club is it has a certain amount of buzz about it, he said.

In China itself, golf is frowned upon as a symbol of Western values by the ruling Communist Party. In October, the party banned its 88 million members from golf club membership.

This has fueled theories among the Wentworth community about what could lie behind Reignwood's plans for their club, with some speculating that it would become a place for party cadres to enjoy a discreet round of golf during their travels.

A Chinese firm owns the London Taxi Company, maker of the capital's distinctive black cabs, and during a pomp-laden visit to London by President Xi Jinping in October it emerged that a Chinese retailer would take over world-famous toy store Hamleys.

Is this what the British people are to expect when the Chinese 'invest' in our country? We need to be more alert, wrote a club member in one of dozens of similar comments handed over to the embassy at the same time as the petition.

The club said it was "extremely disappointed by any inference that members have been treated badly, which in turn is impacting on China's image and image of Chinese investors in the UK".