Shanghai government inspectors said they found no evidence to support a Chinese television show's claim that Muji stores in the city stocked food imported from areas of Japan allegedly contaminated by radiation.

China Central Television's (CCTV) annual "name-and-shame" show that aims to uncover abuses by firms had fingered Muji for mislabelling items. CCTV said the labels hid the fact that the food items originated from Japanese areas that were contaminated after the 2011 nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima prefecture. China restricts food imports from those areas.

Muji issued a statement on Thursday saying the labels on its products featured in the report showed the location of its Japan headquarters, which is in the region affected by the China restrictions. Under Japanese law, the address of the company's headquarters must be stated on the packaging, Muji said. "This address is not the address of the production area."

Muji said it does not sell products that contain ingredients from Japanese areas subject to the ban. All food products sold in China are put under quarantine inspection before they are imported into China, it added. It also clarified that the Chinese-language label placed over the original Japanese label was in compliance with Chinese laws.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang took the stage at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Sunday to deliver his annual report on the work of the government to the nearly 3,000 delegates gathered for the 2017 plenary session of the country's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

At a time of demands in the United States and Europe for trade controls, Li warned China faces "more complicated and graver situations" at home and abroad.

Both the de-globalization trend and protectionism are growing, Li said.

There are many uncertainties about the direction of the major economies' policies and their spillover effects, and the factors that could cause instability and uncertainty are visibly increasing.

Chinese leaders say China will defend free trade in response to President Donald Trump's promises to raise duties on Chinese goods, though Beijing's trading partners complain China is the most closed major economy.

The following is a statement issued by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China for its members.

FCCC statement on harassment of BBC journalists in Hunan province

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China condemns the harassment of and violence against a team of BBC journalists in Hunan province this week in an attempt to prevent them from reporting the story of a Chinese petitioner who was attempting to travel to Beijing to protest, ahead of the start of the National People’s Congress on Sunday.

Despite having the interviewee’s prior consent, BBC correspondent John Sudworth and his team were prevented from meeting her by a group of men who refused to identify themselves. The BBC journalists were assaulted and had their camera equipment broken.

Later, in the presence of uniformed police officers and government officials, the same men forced the BBC team to sign a written confession and apology, under the threat of further violence.

This violent effort to deter news coverage is a gross violation of Chinese government rules governing foreign correspondents, which expressly permit them to interview anybody who consents to be interviewed.

The FCCC is also alarmed that the BBC journalists were forced to sign a “confession” simply for carrying out their professional duties according to Chinese law.

The FCCC calls on the Chinese government and police to take steps to prevent foreign reporters who are legally allowed to work in China from being subjected to such violence and intimidation.

Journalists in China have reported increasing harassment by authorities. The 2016 FCCC survey of working conditions for correspondents, released last November, found increased use of force and manhandling by authorities against journalists performing their work. Some correspondents have also been called in to unspecified meetings with the State Security Bureau.

Fully 98% of the survey’s respondents said reporting conditions rarely meet international standards, while 29% said conditions had deteriorated.

Harassment, detention and questioning of sources remains worryingly common. 57% of correspondents said they personally had been subjected to some form of interference, harassment or violence while attempting to report in China.

China has instructed travel agencies in the country to stop selling trips to South Korea, sources said Thursday.

The move by the Chinese authorities is the latest in a series of what are viewed as retaliatory acts against the planned deployment of a high-tech U.S. anti-missile defense system in Seoul, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Lotte, South Korea's retail giant, has been under fire since it handed over a plot of land it owned as a golf course to the government to be used as the site for the THAAD deployment.

Lotte has been suffering a heavy blow, with its Web sites in both China and Korea experiencing shutdowns from an unidentified hacking attack which was widely suspected to have been initiated by Beijing.

Two "drunk" passengers were seen attacking airline staff moments after being told their flight had been delayed.

The men were spotted punching and kicking at the ground crew as they waited at the check-in desk at the Changshui International Airport in Kunming, China.

Eye-witnesses caught the fight on a mobile phone and recorded as both passengers started arguing with a number of workers.

They were told that due to bad weather, low visibility could endanger them and the hundreds of others on their flight, so the plane had been grounded.

The men then started the dramatic fistfight, with other airport employees and security staff all getting involved.

An eyewitnesses said one of the fighting passengers was bleeding and looked to have a serious head injury.

A statement released by the airport confirmed a fight had broken out in the departure hall.

The two unnamed passengers are believed to have been drunk at the time of the fight, the statement said, adding that the passenger’s injuries were of his own doing, after his head hit a solid object.

Police are investigating.

A large number of Chinese tourists visit the small station "Asari" in Hokkaido, Japan and do nuisance acts.

The Chinese tourists come to Japan in long holidays with "the Vernal Equinox Day" in the lunar New Year in China. The number of them is increasing 8 times in these past four years.

Asari Station is the place that a couple visited for their honeymoon in the Chinese movie "Love city" that made a big hit the year before last in China.

So there are many Chinese tourists coming over to Asari Station, but they do many nuisance acts and confound neighboring inhabitants and others.

• They enter the railway track in spite of the midst of the crossing gate's going down, and take pictures. The train sometimes stopped urgently. In these two months, there were six times of similar troubles.

• Asari Station places a guard out of necessity.

• A Chinese tourist unashamedly said, "Why must I not take a photograph here? It's no problem because the train went away."

• Chinese tourists hurl the snowy balls at the private houses.

• A child rubs snow against the window of the private house, and the mother takes the picture. They put snow in the post. When the reporter asked her, she said "My child did not do a bad thing." and left away.

• Some Chinese tourists enter the sites of the private houses without permission. The inhabitants placed the guide plates of "keep out" written in Chinese, but it's ineffective.

The guides accompanying a group of Chinese tour ≪the hunt for the Northern lights≫ in Finnish Lapland, was forced to call the police because he feared reprisals from angry tourists who never saw a natural phenomenon, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Police arrived explained to foreigners that the guides can not affect the appearance of the Northern lights. However, tour organizers had to warn that not everything depends on them.

≪The guides were scared and not able to cope with the situation when they were surrounded by angry Chinese tourists. Never faced≫, ? said journalists the representative of police of Lapland henna Kelloniemi.

In Finland to celebrate this year’s incredible influx of tourists from Asia. Tours ≪Norway≫, during which guests are trafficked into the country and give to see the Northern lights, is very popular. Natural phenomenon can be observed quite often in the Northern latitudes. However, when the sky is overcast, the lights can be difficult to see.

In some companies travelers insure against such disappointments. As reported by NRK, e.g. ≪Hurtigruta≫ offers tourists who bought a 12-day cruise and did not see the lights, go the same round the following year.

China received a downward trend arrow due to the chilling effect on private and public discussion, particularly online, generated by cybersecurity and foreign NGO laws, increased internet surveillance, and heavy sentences handed down to human rights lawyers, microbloggers, grassroots activists, and religious believers.

Hong Kong received a downward trend arrow due to Beijing's encroachment on freedoms in the territory, reflected in the detention by mainland authorities of five Hong Kong booksellers, shrinking journalistic and academic independence, and the central government's unilateral reinterpretation of the Basic Law in an apparent bid to exclude pro-independence and prodemocracy lawmakers from the Legislative Council.

China flouted international law, ignoring a tribunal's ruling against its expansive claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea and intensifying its repression of dissent within its borders.

In China, the Communist Party regime led by President Xi Jinping tightened its grip with the adoption of new laws and regulations on cybersecurity, foreign nonprofits, and religious affairs. Heavy sentences handed down to human rights lawyers, microbloggers, grassroots activists, and religious believers dealt an additional blow to those seeking to improve conditions in the country.

Beijing's growing intolerance for individual autonomy at home was mirrored by its intrusions into the affairs of neighboring societies.

The leadership issued an unprecedented ruling on Hong Kong's Basic Law with the aim of preventing pro-independence and prodemocracy politicians from taking their seats in the self-governing territory's legislature.

The Chinese government similarly adopted a hostile attitude toward Taiwan after the local opposition party, which opposes unification with China, swept to victory in presidential and parliamentary elections.

And Beijing has intensified its pressure on governments in the region to return those who have fled China to escape persecution, especially members of the Uighur Muslim minority.

In China, an intrusive new cybersecurity law made it easier for authorities to monitor and prosecute online criticism of President Xi Jinping's Communist Party regime.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered a vigorous defence of free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos in a speech that underscored Beijing's desire to play a greater global role as the United States turns inward.

In the first appearance by a Chinese leader at the annual meeting of political leaders, CEOs and bankers in the Swiss Alps, Mr Xi also cautioned other countries against blindly pursuing their national interests, in an apparent reference to the "America first" policies of Donald Trump.

Real estate mogul and former reality TV star Mr Trump, who will be inaugurated as US president on Friday (US time), campaigned on a promise to confront China more aggressively on trade.

He has vowed to renegotiate or ditch multilateral trade agreements and protect US industries from foreign competition by levying new tariffs on goods from abroad.

Mr Xi likened protectionism to "locking oneself in a dark room" in the hopes of protecting oneself from danger, but in so doing, cutting off all "light and air".

No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war, Mr Xi said in a nearly hour-long speech in a large conference hall as US Vice President Joe Biden looked on.

Although Mr Xi painted a picture of China as a "wide open" economy, his government has come under mounting criticism from trading partners for its continued restrictions on foreign investments at a time when its state-run firms are aggressively pursuing acquisitions in Europe.

Today, I think there is a big question mark as to how China pivots in this world, Bob Moritz, global chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in Davos.

Will they be more regional or global in their mindset and, more importantly, in their negotiations? It's something we are going to have to watch over the next 12 months.

China, the world's top exporter, is heavily dependent on free trade and would be hit hard by a new wave of protectionism and a broader backlash against globalisation.

Despite President Rodrigo Duterte's sentiments against the United Nations and the United States, a Pulse Asia survey released on Thursday said most Filipinos still trust both.

According to the Pulse Asia survey conducted among 1,200 respondents from December 6 to 11, 2016 , the US came out as the most trusted out of the five countries they rated.

The US received a 76 percent rating while Japan earned a 70 percent trust rating.

United Nations, meanwhile, received a 74 percent trust rating.

In contrast, most Filipinos distrust China with a 61 percent distrust rating despite its efforts to forge closer ties with the Philippines.

Russia received a 58 percent distrust rating, although it is beginning to foster a better relationship with the Philippines.

Most Filipinos, 55 percent, also distrust Great Britain.

The European Union received 50 percent trust rating and a 47 percent distrust rating.

Department of Chinese culture (equivalent to the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs) announced "the force-out entertainers list" that named the entertainers who were prohibited from appearing on television and working on an entertainment in China.

The name of Vivian Hsu was added to the list of 55 entertainers.

It is said that she is hated by the Chinese authorities because of her pro-Japanese remark in the past.

On her interview held in Tokyo in February, 2010, Vivian said, "Japan is existence like mother bringing me up. It was very valuable eight years when I worked in Japan. I want to work again from now on in Japan if there is an opportunity."

The influence of the list has already appeared.

Vivian had acted as an advertising tower of Chinese major cosmetics company "CHANDO", but her posters were removed immediately when the list was announced.

Most of members in the list are Hong Kong and Taiwanese people and they seem to have gained Chinese attention, because they mentioned democratization in the past.

North Korea kicked off 2017 with Kim Jong Un suggesting the country is nearly ready to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

But President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the claim, saying on Twitter: "It won't happen".

He tweeted: "China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!"

A thick blanket of toxic haze from China descended on most parts of Korea on New Year's Day.

Fine dust concentration was forecast to remain bad all day Monday in the Seoul metropolitan area and Chungcheong, Gangwon, North Gyeongsang and North Jeolla provinces, according to the National Institute of Environmental Research.

A red alert for smog has been issued in the Beijing metropolitan region and Hebei Province.

Here, fine dust levels will fall slightly on Tuesday and the air will return to normal throughout the country on Wednesday as the wind changes direction.

The institute advised people to stay indoors, especially if they suffer from cough or sore throat.

Disney has won a copyright infringement case against a Chinese plagiarism of Disney/Pixar's animated feature "Cars" in a Shanghai court on Thursday.

Disney Enterprises Inc. and Pixar, holders of the copyrights of animated comedies "Cars" and "Cars 2" as well as the character images, filed the lawsuit in June to sue G-Point in Beijing and Bluemtv in Xiamen, after they found images and posters of the animated movie "The Autobots" resembling those of "Cars" and "Cars 2."

Shanghai New Pudong District People's Court ruled on Thursday that the defendants infringed on the intellectual property rights of Disney/Pixar and caused unfair competition. Therefore, the two companies have to pay 1.35 million yuan (US$194,100) in damages to Disney/Pixar, the court ruled.

The plaintiffs' lawyers previously complained at the court that images of the main characters in "The Autobots" -- "K1" and "K2" -- plagiarized the characters "Lightening McQueen" and "Francesco Bernoulli" in "Cars" and "Cars 2." They also said the Chinese name of the movie bore a high resemblance to the Disney and Pixar movies.

Attorneys for the defendants replied that images of "K1" and "K2" were created independently, based on the appearance of real automobiles. They also argued they had emphasized that "The Autobots" was a domestic movie, so consumers would not be confused by the name.

The Autobots director Zhuo Jianrong has been under fire since 2015, when critics dismissed the film as a copycat. Even the English title of the film has been copied from another Hollywood blockbuster franchise "Transformers."

Zhuo fought the accusations and insisted he had never seen the movie "Cars." He said his movie was independently produced and the story is completely different. Zhuo also said he would make a sequel but so far has not secured investment as the first installment lost money and attracted criticism and lawsuits.

After he lost his case on Thursday, Zhuo stated that he would appeal the verdict.

The topic attracts attention in China in the past and becomes the topic again recently.

Some Chinese say the Japanese descendants who are in Taiwan reach "6 million people". One fourth of Taiwanese people become Japanese descendants if you assume population of Taiwan approximately 23,500,000. This number is considerably too much. This may be wrong.

But many Chinese people do not have any doubt for the opinion that thousands of Japanese stayed in Taiwan after the war and the descendants reached the level of millions.

There are the documents indicating 345,925 of Japanese residing in Taiwan were sent to Japan in April, 1947. So I cannot understand that "6 million" Japanese descendants are in Taiwan.

Dozens of Chinese tourists rioted last week after being stranded at New Chitose Airport due to record snowfall.

At around 8:00 p.m. on Friday, about 100 Chinese tourists went into an uproar in the airport’s international terminal following numerous flight cancellations. Some of the tourists crossed past a gate and engaged in fights with police officers who arrived at the scene.

Hokkaido Airport Terminal Co., the operator of the airport, said on Saturday that roughly 6,000 people stayed overnight night on Friday in Hokkaido after about 280 flights were canceled.

The Vatican should take steps to improve relations with China, the Chinese head of religious affairs said on Tuesday, a week after the Roman Catholic Church said it was hoping for "positive signals" from Beijing.

Pope Francis is trying to heal a decades-old rift with China where Catholics are divided between those loyal to him and those who are members of a government-controlled official church.

One of the obstacles to improving relations is the question of who should be able to appoint senior clergy.

China says bishops must be named by the local Chinese Catholic community and refuses to accept the authority of the pope, whom it sees as the head of a foreign state that has no right to meddle in Beijing's affairs.

Wang Zuoan, head of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, was quoted by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday as saying China "hopes the Vatican takes an even more flexible and pragmatic attitude, and takes actual steps to create beneficial conditions for improving relations".

Bath facilities "OOEdo hot spring story (大江戸温泉物語)" opened in Shangha, China. And the facilities of the same name are run in Tokyo.

The Japanese company announced a comment on December 22. It said, "We do not have any company abroad and tie-ups. We have nothing to do with Chinese company."

On the other hand, the employee in Shanghai said, "I don't know the relations with the Japanese company, but we think our business in Shanghai is not a problem."

In contrast, the company of facilities in Shanghai announced the counterargument against Japanese company. It said, "We got the permission to use the brand through another Chinese company in March." and showed the dossier that Tokyo side might have issued.

The Japanese company denied that and said, "There are no facts that the company in Shanghai insisted on and in fact the dossier shown is not what we issued."

On December 26, it was revealed that there was a dormitory of a university at the address of the Chinese company where Shanghai "OOEdo hot spring story" had got permission. The building involved person said, "This is the dormitory for the girl students. I have not heard the name of the company".

China's first aircraft carrier will carry out drills in the Western Pacific, in what the navy called part of routine exercises, amid renewed tension over self-ruled Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said on Sunday evening that a Maritime Self Defense Force ship and a P3C patrol airplane had spotted six Chinese naval vessels including Liaoning traveling through the passage between Miyako and Okinawa and into the Pacific.

China's growing military presence in the disputed South China Sea in particular has fueled concern, with the United States criticizing its militarization of maritime outposts and holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation.

The Western Pacific exercise comes amid new tension over self-ruled Taiwan, following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's telephone call with the island's president that upset Beijing.

The Japanese company announced a comment on December 22. It said, "We do not have any company abroad and tie-ups. We have nothing to do with Chinese company."

On the other hand, the employee in Shanghai said, "I don't know the relations with the Japanese company, but we think our business in Shanghai is not a problem."

In contrast, the company of facilities in Shanghai announced the counterargument against Japanese company. It said, "We got the permission to use the brand through another Chinese company in March." and showed the dossier that Tokyo side might have issued.

The Japanese company denied that and said, "There are no facts that the company in Shanghai insisted on and in fact the dossier shown is not what we issued."

Bath facilities "OOEdo hot spring story (大江戸温泉物語)" opened in Shangha, China. And the facilities of the same name are run in Tokyo.

The Japanese company announced a comment on December 22. It said, "We do not have any company abroad and tie-ups. We have nothing to do with Chinese company.

On the other hand, the employee in Shanghai said, "I don't know the relations with the Japanese company, but we think business in Shanghai is not a problem."

Heavy smog suffocated northeast China for a fifth day Tuesday, with hundreds of flights cancelled and road and rail transport grinding to a halt under the low visibility conditions.

More than 20 cities have entered a state of red alert since Friday evening, implementing emergency measures aimed at cutting emissions and protecting public health from the toxic miasma.

Across the region, construction sites closed and authorities reduced the number of vehicles allowed on the roads in hopes of reducing the thick haze.

In Shijiazhuang, the capital of northern Hebei province, planes could not take off or land, according to a post on a verified social media account of the city's international airport.

Levels of PM 2.5 -- microscopic particles harmful to human health -- climbed to 844 in the area, according to the web site aqicn.org.

The number is almost 34 times the World Health Organization's recommended maximum exposure level of 25 over a 24-hour period.

Is smog a natural disaster? Beijing officials appear to think so.

They have listed it on an official website of weather calamities, alongside the spring sandstorms and summer rainstorms that sweep the capital, wedged between mountains bordering the Gobi Desert and the North China Plain.

Across the so-called Jingjinji region - which is home to 130 million people and includes Beijing, the surrounding province of Hebei and the port city of Tianjin - the average PM2.5 level in November was 102 micrograms per cubic meter.

According to the World Health Organization, which has stricter guidelines than most countries, yearly averages of PM2.5 levels should not exceed 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

The Chinese government says an annual average PM2.5 level of 35 micrograms per cubic meter is acceptable.

China and Norway announced on Monday that they would normalize relations, six years after the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the imprisoned democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo opened a rift between the countries.

Analysts said Norway hoped to revive talks on a trade deal that stalled after the Nobel committee awarded the 2010 prize to Mr. Liu, a literary critic and political essayist.

The news accompanied an unannounced visit to Beijing by the Norwegian foreign minister, Borge Brende, who met with Premier Li Keqiang.

“Through meticulous and numerous conversations, the two sides have, over the last years, reached a level of trust that allows for resumption of a normal relationship,” they said in a joint declaration, which stated that Norway was “fully conscious of the position and concerns of the Chinese side” over the prize.

The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, said in a statement that “Norway deeply reflected upon the reasons bilateral mutual trust was harmed, and had conscientious, solemn consultations with China about how to improve bilateral relations.”

In the statement, Norway said it “fully respects China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, attaches high importance to China’s core interests and major concerns, will not support actions that undermine them, and will do its best to avoid any future damage to the bilateral relations.”

Rights advocates expressed concern that Norway might be caving on its longtime commitment to democracy and human rights.

“We are worried about some of the wording in the declaration,” John Peder Egenaes, secretary general of Amnesty International in Norway, said in an interview. “If this sentence means the Norwegian government becomes subservient, we will criticize them for it. Human rights have been a foreign policy priority for Norway, and in particular support for champions of human rights. This policy has to apply to China, as much as to any other place.”

Stein Tonnesson, a historian and former director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said the agreement was “of huge importance to Norway” because of the commercial potential. Norway's salmon industry stands to benefit significantly.

The mine had not yet opened, but Madagascans were already seething with rage and the Chinese management finally quit Soamahamanina, leaving behind empty tents and cigarette butts.

For months, this small city in central Madagascar was engulfed by protests targeted at a Chinese gold mining company, Jiuxing.

Every Thursday, city residents would take to the streets in downtown Soamahamanina to demonstrate against Jiuxing, which had secured a 40-year gold mining licence on a 7,500ha piece of land.

For the protesters, the mining operation risked ruining their farms - one element of a nationwide aversion to the new wave of Chinese investors on the large Indian Ocean island.

Across the country, Madagascans have openly expressed their hostility towards the growing presence of China, the country's largest trading partner.

Anti-Chinese sentiment is on the rise as Beijing increases its business presence on the continent for natural resources while flooding markets with "Made in China" goods.

Many farmers who were eager to take advantage of the windfall and had agreed to sell their land to the Chinese miner are now regretting it. "Our compatriots are angry with us and accuse us of selling away the country," said farmer Perline Razafiarisoa.

China will return an underwater U. S. drone seized by a naval vessel this week in the South China Sea, both countries said on Saturday, but Beijing complained that Washington had been "hyping up" the incident.

The Defense Ministry said a Chinese naval vessel discovered a piece of "unidentified equipment," and checked it to prevent any navigational safety issues before discovering it was a U.S. drone.

During this process, the U. S. side's unilateral and open hyping up is inappropriate, and is not beneficial to the smooth resolution of this issue. We express regret at this, the ministry added.

Without directly saying whether the drone was operating in waters Beijing considers its own, China's Defense Ministry said U.S. ships and aircraft have for a long period been carrying out surveillance and surveys in "the presence" of Chinese waters.

China is resolutely opposed to this, and demands the U.S. stops this kind of activity, it said.

China will remain on alert for these sorts of activities and take necessary steps to deal with them, the ministry said without elaborating.

The United States is ready to confront China should it continue its overreaching maritime claims in the South China Sea, the head of the U.S. Pacific fleet said on Wednesday, comments that threaten to escalate tensions between the two global rivals.

China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

The United States has called on China to respect the findings of the arbitration court in The Hague earlier this year which invalidated its vast territorial claims in the strategic waterway.

But Beijing continues to act in an "aggressive" manner, to which the United States stands ready to respond, Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech in Sydney.

We will not allow a shared domain to be closed down unilaterally no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea, he said. "We will cooperate when we can but we will be ready to confront when we must."

There is much space debris including the wreckages of the man-made satellite on the orbit of the earth. Japan will experiment on the space debris collection, using H-II Transfer Vehicle called Kounotori ("Oriental stork" or "white stork") that Japan launched on December 9.

It makes the electricity flow to the wire which attached 20 kilos of device resembling debris. "Lorentz force" that occurs in a magnetic field of the earth lowers the speed of the device and drops it. And it burns out at the time of atmosphere entry.

Though Japan is not a big power in space, why do you do debris collection?

Because the debris collection in the space requires complicated and high technique and it helps the attacks to the asteroids that have the possibility of earth collision and it also helps the preparations of the star wars in the future. Furthermore, this may be because Japan where civilization developed highly makes much of hygiene.

• Debris from satellite launch found in Jiangxi
  (Singapore・The Straits Times) (December 13, 2016)
• Large metal cylinder crashes to earth in Myanmar
  (U.K.・The Guardian) (November 11, 2016)
• Sky is falling! Farmers wake up to piece of space rocket that fell to earth narrowly missing their homes in southeastern China
  (Hong Kong・South China Morning Post) (October 19, 2015)

Japan said on Monday it had protested to China over a Chinese complaint that Japanese fighter jets had engaged in "dangerous and unprofessional" behavior when they scrambled at the weekend as Chinese aircraft flew near Japanese islands.

Chinese military aircraft on Saturday flew between Japan's Okinawa and Miyako islands, and over waterways near self-ruled Taiwan - seen by Beijing as a renegade province - as part of long-range exercises, Taiwan said.

Chinese defence ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said in a statement on Saturday that two Japanese F-15 fighter jets flew over the Miyako Strait and conducted "close range interference", firing decoy flares and "jeopardizing the security of Chinese aircraft and pilots".

Yang said China had grave concerns and lodged a protest over the behavior of the Japanese aircraft during what he called "routine" drills in international waters.

But Japan rejected China's assertion.

I have received a report from the defence minister that the Japanese planes did not conduct any close-range interference toward the Chinese military planes ... or threaten the safety of Chinese military planes or its personnel, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

The fact that China’s military unilaterally announced something clearly different from the facts is extremely regrettable and harms the improvement of relations between Japan and China, and we have strictly protested to the Chinese side, he said.

Suga said Japan would watch the actions of the Chinese military, "which are expanding and increasing", and make every effort towards "firmly protecting our country's land, sea and air space and, in accordance with international and domestic law, take strict measures against any invasion of our airspace".

In Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang urged Japan to take steps to prevent "safety problems on the sea and in the air".

It's total nonsense that Japan said it will keep pace with Europe and the U. S. by not admitting China's market economy status, said Chinese expert Cheng Cheng. According to Japanese media, the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has denied China's market economy status (MEP), claiming that it will continue to impose anti-dumping duties.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Dec. 8 at a Trans-Pacific Partnership meeting that dumping by Chinese state-owned enterprises violates market order. He pointed out that Chinese steel enterprises are selling their products at a very low price due to China's overcapacity, saying such behaviors have caused huge losses for steel enterprises in other parts of the world.

However, Dec. 11 marks the 15th anniversary of China's entrance to the WTO. The organization should admit China's MEP based on China's WTO accession protocol. Bai Ming, an expert from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview that Japan violates the rules of market economy when it tries to contain China's economic and trade development through tariff increases.

This behavior will not only cause new conflicts between the two countries, but will also negatively impact their already-weak mutual trust, he added.

In addition, starting in 2019, Japan has decided to remove China, Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand from its preferential tariff framework, claiming that China is not a market economy and that the latter nations violated international market rules through dumping.

Some experts believe that Japan also wishes to cover its financial deficit by removing China from the framework. According to the Japanese Ministry of Finance, imports from the 50 developing countries that enjoyed preferential tariffs in 2015 reached 1.32 trillion yen, among which goods from China accounted for more than 60 percent. Japan lost 33 billion yen due to preferential tariffs, and more than 90 percent of those losses came from the five countries above.

Cheng holds that removing China from the preferential tariffs framework is totally different from the denial of China's MEP. He said Japan has no advantage in the economic gamble with China and the U.S., and that Japan has to take unfair measures in order to contain China.

The European Union Delegation in China issues the following statement in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission in China

Every year on 10 December the international community celebrates the anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This anniversary is an opportunity for both the EU and China to examine their progress in protecting the human rights of all persons.

In recent years, China has made considerable progress in a number of areas of human development, including improving the social and economic situation for hundreds of millions of its citizens. In the sphere of civil rights, we also see a reduction in the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty, increasing professionalisation of the judiciary as well as the introduction of China's first national anti-domestic violence law.

However, we are also aware that there is an urgent need for additional progress with regard to the criminal justice system. In particular we are concerned about the failure to implement current legal protections and the adoption of laws and regulations which run contrary to China’s stated commitment to advance the rule of law. During the past year, we have been extremely troubled about the deterioration of the situation with respect to freedom of expression and association. This repression has led to the arrest, detention and conviction of human rights defenders, lawyers and others exercising rights such as freedom of religion or belief.

We once again call for the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and Uighur academic Ilham Tohti. We remain extremely concerned about the cases of Zhang Haitao and Tashi Wangchuk and the ongoing detention and conviction of human rights lawyers and defenders detained in connection with the 9 July 2015 crackdown, including Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang, Xie Yang and in particular Jiang Tianyong. We are equally concerned about all human rights defenders and their family members who have been harassed and punished because of their work in promoting rights which are protected in China’s Constitution and international law.

In accordance with UN treaties and conventions, the European Union and its 28 Member States believe that no individual or group should be punished for seeking to exercise, protect or promote their own rights or the rights of others. As such, we urge China to immediately release any individual who has been detained as a result of such activities. We believe that persons in detention should have access to lawyers of their own choosing and their family members, and not be subjected to forced and public confessions, torture or other mistreatment.

We believe that the respect and promotion of these rights will contribute to creating a more prosperous China. Prosperity is also connected to freedom of information online and offline, which is fundamental for the free exchange of ideas and democratic debate of issues. In the coming year, we hope that China will demonstrate progress in these areas as well as in allowing foreign and domestic non-governmental organisations to operate freely and effectively in China. We will continue to work with China towards these aims.

Japanese children learn cleaning the environment of own neighborhood and community area neatly since they are little. It is not only learning, but also developing the ability of the self-management of their works and the strong sense of responsibility for the society. Furthermore, it brings up the spirit to respect results of the works of other persons.

In addition, such an education means not only the participation in cleaning activity, but also learning that protecting neighboring environment is their own responsibilities and accepting their duties. And they can respect environment when they are grown up.

What children need to learn is "how to be an excellent member in society. The goal of the education is not only to enhance the intelligence of children, but also to make the useful humans for society.

President Xi challenges notion that prosperity leads to liberalism

For decades, Western democracies have pursued a policy of engagement with China underpinned by a belief that prosperity and openness would naturally lead to a more liberal political system in Beijing. By demonstrating the benefits of the western way of life, the advanced economies thought China would become more like them.

It is a belief that has now been shaken by President Xi Jinping, who had himself named the “core” of the ruling Communist Party at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee last week. This designation effectively returns China to strongman rule and ends a shortlived period of consensus leadership. While Mr Xi’s predecessors made little progress in introducing democracy during their tenure, their implicit, and sometimes even explicit, aim was to move in that direction.

In contrast, Mr Xi has forcefully and repeatedly rejected democracy and most other universal values and instead promised a “great rejuvenation” that hearkens back to a time when “all under heaven” was ruled by an infallible emperor.

Since he took office in late 2012, the president has concentrated power in his own hands and undermined institutions that provided some semblance of executive oversight. He has also led the most determined crackdown on dissent and civil society in decades.

Mr Xi’s defenders, in China and the west, have argued that this consolidation of power was necessary so he could undertake difficult economic and even political reforms. His vituperative anti-corruption campaign was supposed to ease the overhaul of bloated state-owned enterprises and curb an unsustainable debt explosion.

As Mr Xi enters the final year of his first five-year term, it is increasingly clear that consolidation of power is the end itself, rather than the means to enact important reforms. By weakening institutions that could restrain the party, he has also reversed a long-term trend towards greater judicial independence and rule of law. Without these, China will struggle to tackle corruption at its roots.

The west faces questions over how to deal with an increasingly powerful country led by someone who unapologetically rejects the tenets that underpin its systems. Engagement with China remains the best course but this engagement must be principled and hard- headed.

China’s refusal to allow foreign investors into many parts of its economy should be met with greater scrutiny of Chinese companies’ attempts to buy up overseas competitors in strategically important industries. This is not protectionism but merely a rebalancing so Beijing understands it cannot keep its own market closed to foreigners and expect to be welcomed in return.

Western governments, particularly in the EU, must realise that undermining each other in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese Communist party is ultimately short-sighted and self-defeating. China’s leaders, like any other leaders, do not respect nations that kowtow and do not make investment decisions based purely on “friendship” or some inchoate notion of a “golden era”.

The assumption that China would automatically become democratic as it became rich and integrated into the global economy has been proved wrong. . . for now. But the modern world has rarely, if ever, seen a large country that was able to run a highly open economy with a closed-off authoritarian system for any length of time. All conventional bets are off. Mr Xi has set the stage for the biggest political science experiment in history.

The word "Chinese" is words to "look down upon another person" and is a discrimination term in foreign countries. Chinese students studying abroad are sometimes said "f*cking chinese".

When they are talked in Chinese and they answer in Japanese, the storekeepers change their manner suddenly and sometimes reduce the price.

Chinese get involved in some kind of troubles in the foreign countries. So many Chinese students studying abroad pretend to be Japanese.

Foreigners are often driven out and discriminated, but many cases of discrimination are against Chinese.

The Chinese are never welcomed not only in United States, Australia, U. K., France and Japan, but also in Thailand, India and Singapore. It's very common for Chinese students studying abroad to feign nationality and pretend to be Japanese.

It's because troubles decrease by doing so.

The reason why Chinese students studying abroad are disliked and driven out is that Chinese can speak local words very well.

And the people in the Western countries discriminate against Chinese students, simply because they recognize China to be the terrific rival of the Western countries at the same time they look down on Chinese.

The pirated copies of Japanese Anime movie "your name." that is making a hit now are already in circulation in China.

The DVD is not released in Japan yet, but the pirated copies make their original packages and are sold in 15 yuan (approximately 230 yen) in Beijing.

There is a Chinese title "你的名字(your name)" below the Japanese title "君の名は。(your name)" on the package covering. Several movie scenes are inlaid in the back cover. The outline is explained with both Japanese and Chinese. And a caution "The unauthorized duplication is forbidden by the law" in Japanese is on it.

Beijing is dotted with shops selling the pirated editions of the movies and dramas of the United States, Japan and Korea. The plural pirated editions of "Your name" are confirmed and it expresses a "popularity" of the work. According to the person concerned to see a pirated edition, the picture does not have the problem.

Toho, the distributor said "the illegal distribution of the pirated editions is in investigation" and refrains from comment.

The Chinese authorities receive overseas criticism and strengthen the control of the pirated editions. They exposed 21,000 intellectual copyright infringement cases, 26,300 million yuan (approximately 400 billion yen) by a sum of money in 2015. But overrunning of the pirated editions continues.

The administration cited national security risks.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order which prohibits China’s Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund from acquiring the U.S. business of German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron, the Treasury Department said on Friday.

The White House said it was blocking the deal following an assessment done by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency task force led by the Treasury Department.

“CFIUS and the president assess that the transaction poses a risk to the national security of the United States that cannot be resolved through mitigation,” the department said in a statement.

Aixtron has said that the deal would be called off if the U.S. president opposed it.

New sanctions are response to North Korea’s Sept. nuclear test

China backs punishment despite concerns over economic collapse

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday to cut North Korean coal exports as part of efforts to punish Kim Jong Un’s regime for a September nuclear test by cutting off his government’s few sources of hard currency.

The resolution will deny Pyongyang at least $700 million a year, according to two U. S. State Department officials who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations on the move.

Crucially, the proposal got the backing of China, which can veto any resolution before the 15-member council and has been wary of strangling its isolated neighbor's economy given the turmoil that might follow.

China accounts for more than 70 percent of North Korea's trade and provides most of its food and energy supplies, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The resolution’s most significant provision is a binding cap that would cut coal exports by about 60 percent. It bans the export of non-ferrous metals such as copper, nickel and silver, which gives Kim’s regime another $100 million a year. It also seeks to block diplomats from smuggling illegal items or selling arms by, among other things, limiting accredited diplomats to one bank account each.

Humanity's best bet at detecting aliens is a giant silver Chinese dish the size of 30 football fields ? one that simultaneously showcases Beijing's abilities to deploy cutting-edge technologies and ignore objectors' rights as it seeks global prominence.

The 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in the country's southwest, which was launched in September and cost 1.2 billion yuan (US$180 million) to build, is the world's largest radio telescope.

Once fully operational, FAST will be able to peer deeper into space than ever before, examining pulsars, dark matter and gravitational waves ? and searching for signs of life.

Authorities also hope it will bring tourist dollars to the province of Guizhou, one of China's poorest regions.

But it comes at the cost of forcibly displacing about 9,000 villagers who called the site in Pingtang county their home.

Many were outraged at being forced to leave the valley surrounded by forested karst hills and hundreds of families are now suing the government, with some cases being heard this week.

Octogenarian Han Jingfu drank pesticide days after being made to sign a relocation contract and died at his front door, neighbors and relatives said.

China built FAST as part of efforts to take on international rivals and raise its embarrassingly low tally of Nobel Prizes, explained Peng Bo, director of China's National Astronomical Observatories, which oversees the telescope.

The 500-meter-wide (1,640 feet) dish dwarfs its nearest competitor, the U.S.' Puerto Rico-based Arecibo telescope, which is only 305 meters across.

We said we had to be a little more daring, because we had to surpass the U.S. no matter what, Peng said.

I think we can get a few Nobel prizes out of it. We as Chinese people really want to win them.

The world's most populous country and second-largest economy has so far only won one scientific Nobel, awarded last year to chemist Tu Youyou for medicine.

FAST's receivers are more sensitive than any previous radio telescope, and its pioneering technology can change the shape of the dish to track celestial objects as the Earth rotates.

It could catalogue as many pulsars in a year as had been found in the past 50, Peng said.

But he acknowledged that FAST will be overtaken by the larger Square Kilometer Array telescope in South Africa and Australia, which will be built over the next decade.

■'Pushed into a corner'

FAST needs a five kilometer-wide (three miles) "radio silence" buffer zone around it with electronics banned in order to reduce interference with the sky's much fainter frequencies.

Relocated residents would "enjoy better living standards," the official Xinhua news agency said when the dish was completed in July.

Villagers in nearby communities admired their luck, saying they should 'thank the aliens,' it added.

But villagers allege land grabs without compensation, forced demolitions and unlawful detentions, and up to 500 families are suing the Pingtang county government.

Lu Zhenglong, whose case was heard Tuesday, said officials demolished his house without warning or consent when he was not even present, burying his furniture.

What would have happened if I had been inside? he told AFP, adding that authorities had "pushed ordinary people into a corner. It's really unbelievable."

A neighbor also surnamed Lu said: "They've chased us all off to some wasteland and ordered us to live there with no way to maintain our old standards of living. For 90 percent of us, basic survival is a problem."

The rubble of their homes now lies under soil and new saplings in a tourist park just outside the radio silence zone, with a museum, a space-themed hotel and visitor reception facilities which will sell tickets for nearly US$100 each.

According to the Pingtang county government website, the park was aimed at "high-end people from developed cities" and cost more than 1.5 billion yuan ? more than the telescope itself.

■'Eye to the sky'

Meng Xiujun, whose Elites Law Firm in the southern city of Guangzhou is handling most of the cases, said officials tried to intimidate him, telling him he should "see the bigger picture for a key national project."

But he told AFP: "This isn't just a matter of economic interests ? once you start asking average citizens to kneel down or beat them, it becomes about human rights and problems with China's rule of law."

The Pingtang county government did not respond to requests for comment by AFP.

China's defence ministry has rejected as "malicious speculation" allegations by a U.S.-based group that Chinese peacekeepers had abandoned their posts in South Sudan in July instead of protecting civilians.

Chinese troops are part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which has been ravaged by conflict between rival forces loyal to the President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar.

The Center For Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) said in a report published last week that Chinese peacekeepers with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) had withdrawn from a civilian protection zone in July after coming under attack.

The CIVIC report said the Chinese peacekeepers abandoned their posts in the South Sudanese capital of Juba on July 11, a day after a rocket-propelled grenade had exploded near a Chinese armoured personnel carrier, killing two Chinese soldiers.

Yang Yujun, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Defence, said in comments published on the ministry's official website (www.mod.gov.cn) that the report was "malicious speculation".

Currently, the United Nations is investigating the performance of the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Sudan, and making unwarranted accusations against UN peacekeepers and personnel before the findings have been published is irresponsible, he said.