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Swift, brutal and Unjust - The New York Times gives its verdict on China’s legal System
‘Torture is
common, being accused of a crime is all but a guarantee of being
convicted for it, and confessions can be extracted by any means
necessary, even if the fact that a crime occurred at all is in doubt.’
That
was the verdict that the New York Times reached this week when it
published a 3,000 word condemnation of the Chinese legal system that
revealed shocking details of interrogation methods that would not be
out of place at a Japanese, Nazi, or US war crimes tribunal, and an
approach to justice which has more to do with finalizing the guilt of
the accused than it does ascertaining it, and which certainly has no
place a civilized country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/international/asia/21confess.html
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Deep Flaws, and Little Justice, in China's Court System
By JOSEPH KAHN
Published: September 21, 2005
ANYANG, China - For three days and three nights, the police wrenched
Qin Yanhong's arms high above his back, jammed his knees into a sharp
metal frame, and kicked his gut whenever he fell asleep. The pain was
so intense that he watched sweat pour off his face and form puddles on
the floor.
On the fourth day, he broke down. "What color were her pants?" they
demanded. "Black," he gasped, and felt a whack on the back of his head.
"Red," he cried, and got another punch. "Blue," he ventured. The
beating stopped.
This is how Mr. Qin, a 35-year-old steel mill worker in Henan Province
in central China, recalled groping in the darkness of a interrogation
room to deduce the "correct" details of a rape and murder, end his
torture and give the police the confession they required to close a
nettlesome case.
On the strength of his coerced confession alone, prosecutors indicted
Mr. Qin. A panel of judges then convicted him and sentenced him to
death. He is alive today only because of a rare twist of fate that
proved his innocence and forced the authorities to let him go, though
not before a final push to have him executed anyway.
Justice in China is swift but not sure. Criminal investigations nearly
always end in guilty pleas. Prosecutors almost never lose cases brought
to trial. But recent disclosures of wrongful convictions like Mr. Qin's
have exposed deep flaws in a judicial system that often answers more to
political leaders than the law.
"Our public security system is the product of a dictatorship," Mr. Qin
wrote his family when he was on death row. "Police use dictatorial
measures on anyone who resists them. Ordinary people have no way to
defend themselves."
The viability of China's Communist Party depends more than ever on its
ability to create a credible legal system. The party needs the law to
check corruption, which has eroded its legitimacy. The authorities want
people to turn to the courts, rather than take to the streets, to
resolve social discontents that have made the country more volatile
than at any time since the 1989 democracy movement.
The law, in other words, has become a front line in China's struggle to
modernize under one-party rule. Yet Mr. Qin's persecution and similar
miscarriages of justice that have come to light this year suggest that
China is struggling with a fundamental question of jurisprudence: Do
officials serve the law, or do laws serve the officials? Or, to put it
another way, is the Communist Party creating rule of law or rule by law?
Twenty-seven years after Deng Xiaoping declared at the outset of
China's economic reforms, that "the country must rely on law," the
Communist Party realizes that it cannot effectively govern a thriving
market-oriented economy unless people trust in law. Hundreds of
thousands of new lawyers, stronger courts and a blizzard of
Western-inspired codes protect property, enforce contracts and limit
police powers.
Disgruntled peasants, displaced urban homeowners and newly wealthy
entrepreneurs demand that the authorities respect constitutional rights
long treated as notional. Even inside the system, some policemen,
prosecutors and judges have tried making the law into a more
independent force.
But the transition has been arduous, and the outcome remains uncertain.
Beijing draws the line at legal challenges to senior officials or
important government agencies. The courts rarely if ever rule in favor
of political protesters. Even in business cases, political influence
often proves decisive.
Criminal law poses one of the biggest challenges - and most pointed
sources of discontent. The police and courts still rely mainly on
pretrial confessions and perfunctory court proceedings to resolve
criminal cases instead of the Western tradition of analyzing forensic
evidence and determining guilt through contentious court trials.
China's criminal laws forbid torture and require judges to weigh
evidence beyond a suspect's confession. But lawyers and legal scholars
say forced confessions remain endemic in a judicial system that faces
pressure to maintain "social stability" at all costs.
The police and government officials in Anyang, the northern Henan
county seat where Mr. Qin was interrogated, and authorities in
Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, declined repeated written requests
to discuss his case.
But Mr. Qin, his family members and several people involved in his
defense said the case showed how political motives and collusion among
police, prosecutors and the courts could make the law a source of
terror for people who lack the power or money to defend themselves.
A Suspect Investigation
Just after noon on Aug. 3, 1998, Jia Hairong, a 30-year-old peasant
woman, was found murdered on her family's farm in the village of
Donggaoping, an hour's drive from Anyang, according to court documents.
Her pants had been cut off with a razor blade. She was raped and
strangled, her body stashed behind tall cornstalks.
The police found a plastic alarm clock and the razor blade at the
scene. They determined that both items were stolen from a nearby home
just before the assault.
Court documents do not make clear whether physical evidence -
fingerprints, blood, semen, traces of clothing - could have identified
the killer. If there were such forensic leads, they were not followed.
Instead, the police relied on the accounts of three children who were
playing outdoors in Qinxiaotun, a village about a mile east of
Donggaoping, the records show. The children recalled seeing Mr. Qin,
who lives in Qinxiaotun, walking from the direction of Donggaoping that
afternoon.
Around midnight on Aug. 4, four officers arrived at the steel plant
where Mr. Qin worked nights and took him away for questioning.
Mr. Qin is a tall, shy, doe-eyed man who rarely travels farther than a
bicycle ride from his dirt-floored village home. When he speaks -
friends say he generally speaks only when spoken to - he has a heavy
local accent that even Anyang residents have trouble understanding.
The police would not tell him why he was being detained. But through
the early morning hours, he was told to detail how he spent Aug. 1 to
3, and especially the afternoon of Aug. 3. He said he had stayed at
home that day before going to work at night.
After the police said a witness told them that he walked through the
village that afternoon he amended his story, recalling that he visited
the family farm, a short distance from home, to fertilize the fields.
"The farmland is close, so it is not like leaving home," Mr. Qin said later. "But they thought they had caught me lying."
He was handcuffed and shackled. He still had no idea what he was
suspected of doing. But he overheard some officers and drivers
discussing a local murder. He wondered if his detention had some
connection.
"I kept asking them what this was all about," Mr. Qin said. "No one would tell me."
A senior detective named Shen Jun took charge of his interrogation,
court documents show. Mr. Qin described Mr. Shen's approach as polite,
even conciliatory at first. The detective said he was investigating the
theft of an alarm clock. He said Mr. Qin's fingerprints matched those
found on the clock.
"He said it was a cheap little alarm clock and that there was no reason
to lie," Mr. Qin said. "I should just confess. "Then everyone could go
home."
Mr. Qin said he hoped his detention really was prompted by a petty
theft. But instinct told him not to admit stealing something he did not
steal. So the pressure intensified.
Mr. Shen organized four teams of two policemen each. The teams
interrogated Mr. Qin in consecutive six-hour shifts, day and night, for
three days.
The questioning quickly turned to torture. Mr. Qin said he was made to
sit for many hours on the open metal frame of a chair without a back.
His feet and arms were strapped to the chair legs and his body slumped
through the frame, forcing the backs of his knees and his lower back
against the sharp edges. The technique is known as "tiger stool."
Alternately, Mr. Qin's hands were handcuffed behind his back and
cinched up until they were above his head and his arms felt as though
they would separate from his shoulders. This was referred to as "taking
a jet plane."
He described the pain as piercing. But he said he suffered even greater
agony from lack of sleep. The police poured frigid water on his head
and pounded him awake when he nodded off. They referred to this as
"circling the pig." By his third day in detention, he said, he felt
delirious.
"It would take a superman to resist," he recalled.
Finally, pressed to specify the color of the stolen alarm clock, he
made a guess: "White." An officer whacked his head and asked again,
"What color was the clock?" "Red," he offered, but he got another blow.
Then he said, "Green." The beating stopped.
Soon thereafter, Mr. Shen told Mr. Qin his theft of the alarm clock
proved he had killed Ms. Jia. The police now had all the evidence they
needed, he said, but Mr. Qin must cooperate fully to avoid the harshest
punishment. That meant he must volunteer every detail of the crime,
three times over, and confess a complete narrative.
Still dazed, Mr. Qin hazarded guesses to every question - was she
wearing shorts or long pants? did he strangle her with his hands or
with a rope? - until he was allowed to sleep.
In the eight months between his arrest and his trial, Mr. Qin wrote a
series of anguished letters home, urging his family to disregard the
charges.
"Every word of the confession is a joke," he wrote in one letter to his
older brother in early 1999. "To this day, I have no idea what the
victim looks like, and I certainly didn't know the color of her pants."
Unwavering Conviction
In prison, Mr. Qin tutored himself in criminal law. His letters cited
passages that he felt would aid his defense. Article 38 of the Chinese
Constitution forbids extracting confessions by torture and "frame-ups."
Article 46 of the 1996 revised Criminal Procedure Law declares that
"oral confessions" are not sufficient grounds for conviction. Article
12 mandates that suspects must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
His anger convinced his older brother, Qin Yanqing, who became his
tireless champion. The elder Mr. Qin petitioned legal officials in
Anyang and Zhengzhou to review the case. He exhausted the family
savings on travel and lawyer fees.
He even sought out Mr. Shen. But the detective expressed unwavering conviction.
"I stake my 20 years of leadership experience as a guarantee," the
elder Mr. Qin quoted Mr. Shen as telling him. "If your brother did not
commit this crime, then I will accept punishment."
When the trial opened in April 1999, 50 relatives and villagers went to
Anyang to testify on Mr. Qin's behalf. But the three-judge panel
ordered the trial closed and excluded them from the courtroom,
villagers said.
The prosecution brought no witnesses, and Mr. Qin said the judges
prevented him from calling any. Mr. Qin vigorously recanted his
confession. His lawyer argued that the prosecution's case, which
depended wholly on the confession, was invalid. The trial was over
before lunch.
Six months later, a judge visited Mr. Qin in prison and delivered the
verdict: Mr. Qin was guilty of rape and murder, and would be executed.
Mr. Qin had a right to appeal.
On death row, his cell contained 15 people and one toilet. He said that
in his two years there, a dozen cellmates were escorted away in the
early morning hours and executed with a bullet to the back of the head.
He was spared that fate not by his appeals, or by new DNA evidence, but by a stroke of luck that might count as a miracle.
One day in January 2001, a retired soldier named Yuan Qiufu walked into
a police station in Linzhou, a town not far from Anyang, and told the
officer on duty that he had raped, robbed and strangled 18 women. He
provided voluminous details of his killing rampage that included an
unerring account of the rape and murder of Ms. Jia and the theft of a
green alarm clock.
Reversal of Fortune
Even in the world's most populous country, such definitive exonerations
are not common. But this year alone about a dozen similar reversals of
fortune have come to light, suggesting that legal officials and the
state media are paying more attention to problems in the judicial
system - and that such problems run deep.
For example, last May, She Xianglin, a 39-year-old former security
guard in Hubei Province, was released from jail after serving 11 years
when his wife, whom he was convicted of murdering, returned for a
visit. In 1994, she had run away and remarried in another province. The
police decided that a body they found must be the wife's and that Mr.
She must have killed her.
In June, a 30-year-old laborer in Shanxi Province was released from
custody after a boy he confessed to killing and dumping into the Yellow
River last year came back home. The boy had migrated to a city to find
work.
In July, three police officers in Yunnan Province were convicted of
torturing a man into saying he killed a prostitute. The man had been
scheduled to go to trial for murder in 2002 when someone else admitted
committing the crime.
Official statistics show such abuses are numerous. The Supreme People's
Procuratorate, China's Justice Department, said in July that 4,645
criminal suspects had suffered human rights violations, including
torture during inquisitions, in the previous 12 months.
Top officials are pushing to improve criminal procedures. Some legal
scholars say one measure under consideration could give suspects the
right to have a lawyer present during interrogations.
But such changes, if they come, will take time. China's Communist
Party-run legislature has been urged to consider many new protections,
like a right to remain silent. But such proposals have gone nowhere
because the police steadfastly oppose them.
The last time the government overhauled criminal law procedures, in
1996, it toughened an existing ban on forced confessions, while
declaring that suspects were entitled to a presumption of innocence.
The current publicity campaign effectively acknowledges that the 1996
rules did not have the desired effect.
One obstacle is China's long history, in which criminal law was viewed
as an extension of the power of the emperor rather than an objective
code that applies to everyone. Confession amounted to a submission to
authority, while a plea of innocence was viewed as a form of rebellion.
The legal code of the Tang Dynasty, for example, specified that guilt
could only be finally assigned through confession, and that cases could
not be officially recorded without a confession.
Li Bin, a defense lawyer and former government prosecutor in Yunnan,
who was involved in the trial of the three policemen on charges of
forcing a confession, said the problem was systemic.
In China's top-down political system, the police, prosecutors and
judges respond mostly to incentives from above, Mr. Li said. They pay a
much higher price for failing to maintain the appearance of social
order than for torturing suspects, he said.
"The judicial system is set up to protect the authority of the
government," he said. "It is not set up to protect the rights of
suspects."
'No Hard Feelings'
The disclosure that Mr. Yuan, the serial killer, had murdered Ms. Jia
set off alarm bells among Anyang officials. But the concern was the
possibility that the wrongful arrest, prosecution and conviction of Mr.
Qin could damage careers, Mr. Qin's family members and an investigator
in the case who is based in Beijing said.
The officials' response was to suppress the new information - and keep Mr. Qin on death row.
The investigator talked to the local officials involved, but asked to
remain anonymous because of restrictions on speaking with reporters. He
said that the authorities in Linzhou, who were handing the case of Mr.
Yuan, and those in Anyang, responsible for Mr. Qin's incarceration,
agreed between themselves to keep the crucial part of Mr. Yuan's
confession secret. Mr. Yuan would be prosecuted for 17 murders instead
of 18, leaving Mr. Qin's conviction intact.
"Their attitude was that if my brother was released, 20 officials would
suffer," said Qin Yanqing, Mr. Qin's elder brother. "But if he was
executed, only one person would suffer."
The agreement held for more than a year. It came to light only after an
official in Linzhou joked about the matter to a reporter for a national
legal affairs publication. Although the reporter did not publish an
article on the subject, he did alert authorities in the capital, who
ordered an inquiry.
In May 2002, a provincial-level legal investigation determined that Mr.
Qin should be released. He was given a suite at a hotel. The Anyang
County police organized a banquet.
"When I got back to my room, I cried and cried," he said. "I could not control myself."
A few days after his release, Mr. Qin went to the county police station
and demanded to see Mr. Shen. The detective rushed out of a meeting to
greet him, shaking his hand and apologizing profusely, Mr. Qin recalled.
"He said my case had been a severe lesson for them all," he said.
But whether they treated it that way is unclear. It took Mr. Qin and
his brother several months to negotiate compensation. Local authorities
eventually agreed to the equivalent of $35,000 in damages for four
years of incarceration on false charges.
But the payment came with strict conditions. Mr. Qin had to agree not
to talk about the matter with the news media or to petition higher
authorities for more money.
He initially accepted those terms. But he broke the pledge this year,
he said, because the authorities had refused to fully exonerate him.
Although he has a notice from the police confirming that he was
arrested in error, the notice attributes the arrest to a "work
mistake." Mr. Qin has never been declared innocent of murder.
"They hope they can just make this disappear with no hard feelings and no problems for anyone involved," he said.
The last time Mr. Qin visited the police to press for a full
restitution, he discovered that Mr. Shen had been promoted. He is no
longer a detective team leader, but Anyang County's deputy chief of
police. |
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1.10.05 19:52
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China - Victim or Aggressor?
The question of whether Tokyo considers China to be a
threat, what form such a threat might take, and how it would respond to
a threat, were answered earlier this week when one of Japan’s leading
news paper, 朝日新聞 (The Asahi News), released details taken from secret
defense documents outlining a number of situations in which China’s
military might move against Japan, and what the best counter moves
might be.
Though full details of the defense plan were not
released, the plan was criticised by some commentators as being highly
provocative given Beijing’s history of maintaining the insistence that
it is a victim and not an aggressor, and as providing unnecessary
political ammunition to right-wing political elements that could be
used to push the moderate Koizumi administration into taking a more
aggressive stance against China, and by elements both inside and
outside of the administration who have been calling for Tokyo expand on
its military alliance with Washington; which has steadily been pushing
Japan to rearm in breach of its pacifist constitution, a move that
China would certainly see as being cause for concern.
The plan
has however also been welcomed by some observers as being a
precautionary move to ensure national security, and because it
continues to recognize that, while still there, the threat posed by
China is marginal.
Nothing New
Reports
in the Japanese media of the existence of plans to repel an aggressive
act from China are nothing new, and the details contained in the latest
media release largely echo suppositions contained in a number of
previous reports, though the latest reports contain more detail on
Japan's likely responses than has been previously provided.
Late
in 2004, Tokyo drew strong protests from Beijing when it became
publicly known that members of the Koizumi administration were set to
specifically name China as a potential military threat, and that Tokyo
had instructed military planners to develop contingency plans involving
the possibility that China may one day try to attack or invade Japan.
Japan
currently maintains three key defense plans for military situation,
Crisis X, Crisis Y and Crisis Z, code references to denote an attack
from North Korea, Mainland China or Russia.
Japan’s Defense
Agency currently lists North Korea as posing the highest level of
threat of the three, and Russia as posing the least.
Being Prepared
In
defense of the defense plan, and in refutation of the criticism that
the plan acts only to antagonize an already mistrustful China,
officials from Japan's defense agency responded that the existence of a
plan to defend against a possible act of aggression from China should
not be taken as an indicator of the existence of a tangible threat, but
rather a contingency developed to ensure that Japan was ready for all
possible eventualities, even those considered to be remote.
An
official spokesperson also added that, under current circumstances,
North Korea was considered to be a greater threat than China, and that,
given the current balance of politics and power in the region, the
possibility of an attack from China was considered to be unlikely at
best.
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"In the military field, we cannot help but envision the worst possible case"
Spokesperson, Defence Agency, Japan. |
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China's Economic Concerns
Though
publicly Beijing often acts to announcements, such those regarding
Japan’s declaration of a potential China threat, by presenting them as
aggressive military gestures so as to create the ‘correct’ public
perception within China, there are also likely to be strong private
concerns in Beijing as to the likely economic impact on the Japanese
public of news reports of there being a potential military threat from
China.
While Beijing has been accused of using anti-Japanese
sentiment as a political tool and, on numerous occasions, of
deliberately fermenting negative feelings against Japan for its own
gain, it has also relied somewhat on the fact that much of the
animosity in the Sino-Japanese relationship is a one way affair that
has seen rampant anti-Japanese sentiment existing among the Chinese
people and in the Chinese media, but almost no anti-Chinese sentiment
existing in Japan, with most Japanese still harboring a fondness
towards China and Chinese culture.
Currently, the one way nature
of Sino-Japanese resentment means that, despite public feeling in
China, Japan remains one of China’s largest foreign investors, largest
providers of tourists, and largest import/export partners. Where the
public perception of China in Japan to shift however, it could have
consequences for the future growth Chinese economy.
Already some
firms in Japan are starting to look elsewhere for investment
opportunities, citing difficulties caused by anti-Japanese sentiment in
China and fears that Beijing may be unwilling to protect Japanese
workers and business interests in the event of open hostilities, as
being among their reasons. Such concerns are only likely to be deepened
if the image of China is allowed to promulgate.
Analysts believe
that the main beneficiary of any shift in Japanese investments is most
likely to be India because of its neutral stance towards Japan and its
more transparent ‘western’ way of doing business.
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"India has less risk than China. India has political transparency and a neutral sentiment toward Japan,"
Fukui Takeo, President, Honda |
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Anti-Japanese sentiment in
China has caused some potential investors to stay away from China, and
anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan may cause more to follow, other reasons
given by Japanese investors for moving their focus away from China
include:
- Poor protection of intellectual property right
- Poor working conditions
- A poor record on human rights
- A low level of official transparency
- A low level of contract integrity
- Instability of water and power supplies
Japanese
firms that are currently undertaking, or are considering undertaking,
moves to make target their investments at India, at China’s expense,
include:
The Defense plan?
According
to the information released in the Japanese media, the defense plan,
which was drawn up by the Ground Self Defence Force during 2003-2004,
outlines the two most plausible situations in which China might attack
Japan, and the best forms of response to such acts of aggression.
The
first situation outlined in the report was the possibility of China
moving against the Japanese-Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited, but
strategically valuable, group of 5 islands and three atolls that lay
mid way between Chinese-Taiwan and Japanese-Okinawa. With the report
envisaging the possibility that China may take the islands by force in
order to secure drilling rights to gas reserves that fall within the
islands territorial waters and access to the regions fisheries.
Occupation
of the Japanese-Senkakus would also provide China with a stable
platform for which it could launch ground based missiles against US
bases on Japanese-Okinawa, located to the east of the islands, and an
additional location from which to launch missiles at military bases,
industrial complexes and civilian population centers located on
Chinese-Taiwan, which is located to the south west of the islands.
China
currently claims ownership of the Japanese-Senkakus base on an
historical mandated; though its claim is often seen as being vague and
as having little or no credibility. China’s claim places the islands as
belonging to Chinese-Taiwan.
The second situation outlined by
the defense plan envisions the possibility that China may launch
pre-emptive or retaliator strikes against US forces located on
Japanese-Okinawa or the home islands in the event of a conflict over
Chinese-Taiwan; which Beijing claims as its own, but which is currently
an autonomous democracy. Such an eventuality would likely drag Japan
into a wider conflict with China.
The defense plan is also
reported to contain contingencies to guard against the possibility that
China might attempt to attack the Japanese home islands using a force
of spies and saboteurs to disrupt, destabilize or incapacitate civilian
and military operations by attacking transport and communications
links, power plants, and other infrastructure components.
China the Aggressor?
Though,
by international standards, China possesses a sizeable military force
it is not considered to a substantial threat by most nations, including
Japan, because of its relative immobility, lack of long ranged
capabilities, and the particulars of its command and control
infrastructure.
While China possesses significant resources in
terms of manpower and mechanized infantry, and a capable nuclear
deterrent, one of China’s its key limiting factors is that it currently
possesses few of the resources required to project its forces beyond
its borders, or to protect its them while in transit once they leave
the protective screen provided by its airforce. Making China’s military
a largely defense orientated organization.
China’s current
political and economic situations also make an act of external
aggression unlikely because of the negative impact that it would have
on trade and economic relations with the rest of the world.
Japan the Pacifist?
Like
the Chinese military, Japan’s armed forces are largely a home-guard
body that does not posses significant long ranged strike, transport, or
escort capabilities.
Unlike most developed and developing
nations, Japan does not maintain a full standing military and has not
done so since the end of WWII. It does however maintain a strong
defense force, with the primary difference between it and a
conventional military being that Japan’s air, ground and maritime
defense bodies does not possess the capabilities to attack other
nations either reactively or pre emptily, or to engage in acts of
military aggression.
This restriction is mandated by Japan’s
post war constitution which initial forbid it to maintain any armed
forces, but which was reinterpreted during the cold war to allow it to
maintain a limited force for the purposes of defense.
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1)日本国民は、正義と秩序を基調とする国際平和を誠実に希求し、国権の発動たる戦争と、武力による威嚇又は武力の行使は、国際紛争を解決する手段としては、永久にこれを放棄する。
2)前項の目的を達するため、陸海空軍その他の戦力は、これを保持しない。国の交戦権は、これを認めない。
1)
The Japanese people, with the wish to promote international justice
based on peace and order, eternally renounce the right to wage war and
to use military force, or threat of force, as a means to determine
international disputes.
2) In order to meet the purpose of the
preceding clause, land, sea, and air forces, and other potential tools
of war, will not be retained, and the Japan nation will no longer
recognize the right of military aggression.
Article 9 subsection 1 and 2, The constitution of Japan |
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The decision to maintain even
a defensive force is highly controversial in Japan, with many arguing
that even a defensive military is in breach of the constitution, and
that I order to maintain its pacifist stance, Japan should scale back
or disband its defense forces.
Unlike China, Japan has renounced the right to bear nuclear arms, and possesses no long ranged missile of any nature.
Paradox of Perspective
It
has been remarked by China watchers that it is a curious paradox of
perspective that China possesses one of the world most powerful
military forces in terms of manpower and equipment, and plays its
military card prominently, yet still refuses to recognize that other
nations might consider it to be a threat; frequently reacting in a
hostile manner against any defensive initiative aimed against rebuffing
a possible hostile act by it.
In this way, China’s actions often
mimic those of the US, with neither nation accepting the legitimacy of
moves by another nation to defend against an act of aggression by it,
while reserving the right to undertake preparations of a similar type
itself.
An English version of the Asahi article can be found here.
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1.10.05 20:04
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Security Breach: Tibetans humiliate Chinese Foreign minister in New York
If the Chinese media is known for anything, it is its
unfortunate habit of censorship; the process of selectively removing
anything from the news that might embarrass or upset Beijing, and the
insertion of stories that are specifically tailored to match the
Chinese Government line on historical, social and political issues. For
this reason, most Chinese are probably unaware that a serious security
breach occurred during President Hu Jintoa’s recent visit to New York.
One that allowed a bold group of Tibetans to carry their message
directly to one of the highest reaches of the Chinese Government.
According
to reports, the incident happened as Chinese Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing left his hotel to meet with to meet with the official, Pro
Beijing, welcome party, a short distance from the hotel, in
anticipation of the arrival of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s motorcade.
On
seeing Foreign Minister Li heading towards the pre vetted welcome
entourage, a small group of ethnic Tibetan who had been preparing to
take part in demonstrations against President Hu Jintao, but who had
escaped official notice because they were not carrying banners or
wearing Tibetan dress, broke from the sidewalk and drew Tibetan flags
when they realized that Li was a Government official.
The group,
believed to be about thirty strong, formed a ring around the
unfortunate minister as he tried to flee, and chanted pro-Tibet slogan
calling on China to end its fifty-year occupation of Tibet.
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"Shame on China!" "Free Tibet Now!"
Protest Chants |
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Although the protestors did not harm him, Foreign Minister Li was reportedly extremely shaken up by the incident.
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"I have never got so close to a Chinese leader, and I have never seen anyone look so pale with fear.”
Tenzin Palkyi, protestor |
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Draconian Chinese prohibitions on protests, and the
complicity of foreign governments eager not to embarrass Chinese
delegations during state visits that could potentially aid in the
creation of lucrative trade deals, mean that most Chinese officials
never have to face such direct criticism from those dissatisfied with
them as Foreign Minister Li did.
An issue of Diplomacy
Though
Foreign Minister Li came through his ordeal physically unscathed, the
fact that demonstrators where allowed to come so close to a senior
Chinese politician is certain to be a heavy embarrassment to both
Chinese and US security officials; neither of whom were able to prevent
Li’s humiliation at the hands of protestors.
Owing to Beijing’s
reputation for either denying such incidents and attempting to cover
them up, or blowing them out of proportion and using them as a
political weapon, it is not yet clear what the diplomatic
repercussions, if any, of the security breach will have for the US. It
is however certain that difficult questions will be asked within the
Chinese ranks over how protestors were able to get through to a senior
Government official.
Satisfaction and Humiliation
Though
the incident surrounding Foreign Minister Li is unlikely to have any
real impact on the situation in Tibet, it has served to provide Pro
Tibetan groups with a noteworthy moral boost because it allowed
protestors to take their message directly to senior members of the
Chinese Government after decades of being suppressed in China and kept
away from Chinese officials overseas by foreign governments that
profess to believe in self determination and freedom of expression.
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"There is a deep feeling of satisfaction because I
screamed in the Foreign Minister's ears the very slogans that my fellow
Tibetans back home dare not whisper. That's the joy of free speech that
I want my fellow Tibetans to enjoy."
Kusho Sonam Wangdu, Tibetan Youth Congress |
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While the castigation of Foreign Minister Li by
protestors is being celebrated by pro Tibet groups, it is certain to be
seen as being deeply humiliating by Beijing, not only because of its
failure to shield Foreign Minister Li from a group that could
potentially have harmed him, but also because it meant that a senior
government official was not only seen to be publicly admonished by
protestors that China largely denies exist, but also because he was
also seen to show abject fear in the face of his admonishment.
In
Chinese culture, being castigated by a person or group that you
consider beneath you, and the public display of fear in the face of
such an admonishment, are both considered to be an extreme loss of face.
Slow Genocide?
Since
beginning its 50 year occupation of formerly sovereign Tibet, Beijing
been repeatedly been accused of carry out a process of erosion aimed at
both the Tibetan people and their culture. A process that has seen
Beijing offering incentives, often money and confiscated Tibetan land,
to ethnic Han who move into Tibet and Han industries that relocate into
the region; in an effort to supplant ethnic Tibetans and Tibetan
endeavors, and the placing of blanket bans elements of the Tibetan
culture that provide the people with symbols of independence and links
elements of their culture and history that are not found in Han
culture, while at the same time promoting unity with Beijing and
advocating Han culture as being ‘more modern than’ and ‘preferable to’
Tibetan culture.
Some China watchers believe such efforts should be internationally recorded as genocide.
Danger?
Fortunately
for Foreign Minister Li, the group that surrounded him largely
consisted of ethnic Tibetans, most of whom are pacifists who have sworn
away from violent protests, making it unlikely that the he was in any
real danger from them.
The only serious altercation of the
protest came when Zhang Wu, a journalist working for US based Chinese
language media group Sinovision, physically assaulted members of the
free Tibet movement.
According witnesses, Zhang verbally abused
a group of Free Tibet campaigners who were trying to raise the Tibetan
national flag close to a hotel in which Hu and his party were residing,
before attacking one of them in a fit of rage.
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1.10.05 20:05
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Exposed – The Truth behind the death of AOL-China
In January 2004, Chinese electronics giant Legend (Now
Lenovo) called off a 2 year, $US50 Million, joint Internet venture with
US media group AOL-Time Warner (Now Time Warner) citing market changes.
The split was open, amicable, and forced by the actions of the Chinese
Government.
The Official Account
Early
in 2004, the domestic Chinese firm Legend, the company which would
later become the electronics giant Lenovo, announced that it was
dissolving a $US50 Million joint venture partnership that it had with
American media group AOL-Time Warner because of ‘a change in the market
dynamics’, more specifically because the price of ADSL Broadband
services, and the advent of wireless networking technology, meant that
a relationship with the media giant was no longer as attractive as
before.
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"The industry has changed in China. We have to think about a new partnership, otherwise it will be tough"
Ma Xuezheng, Executive Director, Legend (Lenovo) |
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At
least that is the official account, and the one that was carried by the
media at the time. Another version of events though, made available
more recently by Time Warner Chief Executive Richard Parsons, offers a
different slant on the breakdown of the AOL Time Warner-Legend
Partnership. One that starkly contradicts assertions made by Legend,
and which places the blame for the breakdown of the partnership on
unethical demands being made on AOL-Time Warner by officials in Beijing.
The ‘Other’ Account
According
to Chief Executive Officer Parsons, it was AOL-Time Warner who pulled
out of the partnership with Legend in 2001 after authorities in Beijing
made a series of unreasonable demands on the company in regards its
joint Internet venture with Legend; leading AOL-Time Warner executives
to pull out of their partnership over ethical concerns, and the fear
that acquiescence to Beijing’s demands would seriously damage the
company’s standing with consumers in the US.
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“[We were concerned about] what we would look like here
in the U.S. if we agreed to a governmentally imposed regime where words
like democracy had to be blocked''
Richard Parsons, Chief Executive, Time Warner |
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Top
among the reasons cited by Chief Executive Parson, as being behind the
ending of the partnership, was the insistence by Beijing that
Government agencies be allow to intercept, modify and retain data being
sent to and from the online subscribers; a move that would have enabled
Chinese security forces to eavesdrop on anybody in China who used AOL’s
software or servers to access the Internet, and to block any or all
content as they saw fit.
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“We made a judgement that it wasn't a market that we wanted to enter in this way at this time''
Chief Executive Parsons |
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Blacklist Confirmed
Along
with revealing the true reasons for the collapse of the AOL Time
Warner-Legend partnership, Chief Executive Parsons also confirmed that
his group had been presented with a ‘blacklist’ of words that it was
supposed to bar from the FM365 internet service that it was jointly
developing with Legend, and over its other China operations, in order
for it to be allowed to operate on the mainland.
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“[Time Warner was] given lists of words that you have to block through your service, like ‘democracy’”
Chief Executive Parsons |
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While
the existence of such ‘blacklists’ is well know, it is not common for
firms to directly acknowledge being presented with them.
The Venture
In
2001, the US media firm AOL-Time Warner and the Chinese electronics
group Legend entered into a joint partnership to provide Internet
access and online community facilities in China. The partnership was to
see AOL software installed on Legend PCs providing Broadband access in
Mainland China through the jointly owned FM365 Internet service. At the
time of its collapse, both parties had invested an estimated $US25
Million each in FM365 and other programs, but had initially pledge to
contribute $US100 Million.
After the collapse, Legend went on to
buy out AOL-Time Warner’s 49% stake in FM365 for an undisclosed sum,
and to provide broadband Internet access through China Telecom, the
state owned telecom company that recently announced its intent to block
voice over IP services on the Chinese Mainland.
Also cited as
reasons for the dissolving of the joint venture with AOL-Time Warner
were the US firm’s over cautious investment approach, which were blamed
for the partnerships lack of engagement in China’s growing cell phone
and messaging markets.
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1.10.05 20:06
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One China, Two Visas, and Some Nasty Politics
In a move that is being seen as a solid step forward in
the strengthening of Taiwanese-Japanese ties, but also as an act of
defiance against the authority that Beijing holds over its territorial
claims, the Koizumi administration has this month formally announced
its decision to permanently liberalize visa requirements for tourist
traveling to Japan from the disputed island of Chinese-Taiwan.
Under the new visa scheme, brought in under a special coalition bill in the Japanese Diet,
tourists from the Chinese-Taiwan will be able to enter Japan with their
basic passport, and to stay for up to 90 days from their time of
arrival, without the need for a separate visa.
The announcement,
which was made through the Japanese Interchange Association; the de
facto agency that manages much of Taiwanese-Japanese affairs in the
absence of formal state-to-state diplomatic ties, echoes and
reciprocates an earlier relaxation of visa regulation by
Chinese-Taiwan’s de facto Government, which permitted Japanese tourists
to travel to Taiwanese territories without visas, and was broadly
welcomed by representatives from the islands administration.
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"The mutual exemption of visa requirements symbolizes close substantive ties between Taiwan and Japan"
Koh Se-kai, Taiwanese Representative to Japan |
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The
permanent lifting of visa requirements is scheduled to begin on 26
September this year and will coincide with the 25 September ending of a
temporary visa waiver for Taiwanese tourists which was set up to run in
conjunction with the opening of the World Exposition in 愛知県 (Aichi
Prefecture).
Chinese-Taiwan is currently Japan’s second largest
source of overseas tourism behind South Korea and ahead of the US and
Mainland China. It is hoped that the new visa waiver will help tourism
ties to further grow.
One China, Two Visas, and some Nasty Politics
Though
apparently a simple border matter between Tokyo and Taipei, visa
arrangements regarding Chinese-Taiwan are a politically charged issue
for Japan because of its commitment to 一個中國 (The ‘One China’ policy); a
treaty under which Tokyo pledged to recognize Chinese-Taiwan as an
integral component of the Chinese mainland and not to recognize the
island as having an independent existence.
Owing to it’s
commitment to ‘One China’ Tokyo’s moves to lift visa restrictions are
likely to be seen as being provocative by Chinese conservatives because
they implicitly define Chinese-Taiwan and Mainland China as being two
distinct entities for the purposes of visa issuance. Visa moves are
also likely to be seen as troubling to some elements of the Japanese
Government because of their potential to further inflame the already
tense relationship between China and Japan.
Unequal Agreements
In
concession to Beijing, that some have seen as being a ‘controlled
surrender’ to political pressure from Chinese nationalists, it was
agreed that five politically sensitive figures were to be excluded from
the earlier visa waiver that was put in place to allow hassle free
entry into Japan for Taiwanese tourists during the World Exposition, so as not to provoke Beijing.
Under
a consensus reached by Tokyo and Taipei, it was agreed that the five
would only be permitted to travel to Japan as tourists under the visa
waiver on the condition that they consulted with the Koizumi
administration before hand.
The political figures excluded from the open doors tourist visa system are:
- Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian
- Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu,
- Taiwanese Premier Frank Hsieh
- Taiwanese Foreign Minister Mark Chen
- Taiwanese Defense Minister Li Chieh
It
was however agreed that the requirement for prior consultation should
not include Taiwanese cabinet ministers and low level political
figures. In defiance of Beijing, former Taiwanese President Lee
Teng-hui, seen by Beijing as being a symbol of Taiwanese nationalism
and separatism, was also not on the list of ‘sensitive’ figures.
The issuing of tourist visas to Lee, who has personal ties to Japan, has previously been a source of controversy, and of conflict between China and Japan.
It is not yet firmly known if this 'consultation list' will remain in place.
A
number of previous attempts, by Tokyo and Taipei, to improve relations
and inter administration communications, have been attacked by Chinese
nationalists and the political right as being efforts to ‘drive a
wedge’ between the island and the mainland.
Spit, Spat, Spot
In
recent years there have been a number of low level ‘spats’ between
China and Japan over ‘semantic issues’ regarding the status and
recognition of Chinese-Taiwan, including an incident earlier this year
when Chinese border security forces seized a shipment of supplementary
teaching material bound for a Japanese international school in the
northeastern city of Dalian. The material was seized because it
contained maps that depicted Chinese-Taiwan and Mainland China using
two different shades. The text of the materials itself however made no
distinction between the two states.
In addition to raising
tensions between China and Japan, the incident also raised questions
over the independence of international schools in China to teach
social, political and historic issues in cases where Chinese accounts
differ significantly from internationally accepted facts and norms.
Moving Forward with the Mainland
The
lifting of visa requirements for Taiwanese nationals comes soon after
an earlier agreement between Beijing and Tokyo in which the two
administrations signed a visa deal allowing tourists from anywhere on
the Chinese mainland to travel to Japan as part of a pre arranged tour
group.
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"The fact that we can now have Chinese visitors from all over the country is a notable development"
Kitagawa Kazuo, Minister for Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Japan |
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Prior
to the signing of the tourism pact with Japan, only tourists from
Beijing, Shanghai, and a small number of other Chinese metropolitan
locations, had been permitted to leave China as tourists bound for
Japan.
Despite the broadening of Sino-Japanese tourism accords,
Japan’s social and political relationship with Mainland China remains
less stable and far more acrimonious than its relationship with
Chinese-Taiwan, making it unlikely that Beijing will be offered, or
will accept, a similar visa-less tourism arrangement to Chinese-Taiwan.
The State Line
Unlike
less insular countries, Beijing’s tough state line on international
travel means that only people from certain areas of China are permitted
to travel overseas as tourists, and even then they are restricted to
destination countries that have been pre approved by Beijing.
Chinese
tourists are also often required to travel in pre vetted groups with
the Government having the final say over who may leave and where they
may travel so as to limit Chinese tourists exposure to ‘foreign
elements’.
It is also common for Chinese tourists to have to
place large bail bonds when they travel to ensure that they do not
defect or abscond from their tour.
On top of the restrictions
placed on Chinese tourists by their own Government, additional
restrictions are often placed on Chinese tourists by foreign
governments because of the perceived risk of allowing easy entry to
Mainland Chinese to their countries; including risks of espionage,
absconding, terrorism, and the use of tourism to cover the
intimidation/forced return of domestic Chinese populations.
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1.10.05 20:07
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We will not go quietly into the night: China’s dirty laundry comes back to haunt Hu Jintao
In the west The words “We will not go quietly into
the night” have long been a staple of poetry, patriotism and even
movies, but they took on a new meaning for Chinese President Hu Jintao
last week when the very people who refuse to go quietly made their
presence felt during his state visit to Canada; serving once more to
remind the world that, while there may ‘officially’ be only one China,
that one China has more than one voice.
Though President Hu is
commonly dogged by protestors when visiting western democracies, his
visit to Canada, which is home to and estimated 1.2 million ethnic
Chinese, was notable for the broad spectrum of protesters that it
attracted, with demonstrators ranging from westerners campaigning to
raise awareness of China’s continued restriction of personal and social
freedoms, to a group of over 100 Tibetan demonstrators, many of whom
were wearing traditional attire, campaigning for an end China’s 50 year
occupation of their country.
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"We welcome you -- to get China out of Tibet"
Protest T-shirt |
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Other groups protesting during Hu’s visit included:
- Ethnic Chinese campaigning for democracy and increased personal/social freedoms on the Chinese mainland
- Ethnic Uighur protesting against China’s continued occupation of East Turkistan (Xinjiang).
- Taiwanese protesting for an end to the One China policy
- Taiwanese protesting against China’s continued threat to invade Chinese-Taiwan
- Members of the FLG meditation sect seeking an end to state repression of their movement in China and overseas.
Problems, What Problems? I know of No Problems.
As
has become the standard practice during Chinese State visits, President
Hu refused to acknowledge protesters or the validity of their causes,
and when challenged by the press, Hu refused to acknowledge the
concerns over China’s poor human rights record, pronouncing instead
that human rights were important to China and that it had made
noticeable improvements, but refusing to elaborate, or to be drawn
further, on the issue.
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"The Chinese government has traditionally attached a great deal of importance to the question of human rights"
Hu Jintao, President, China
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President Hu also to refused to engage when prompted
by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin on the possibility of Beijing
opening productive dialogs with Tibet and Chinese-Taiwan over their
respective issues with mainland China.
Red Flags and Red Faces
Although
protester groups were prevented from confronting President Hu directly,
their high visibility meant that they were able to attract considerable
attention from the world’s press whic allowed them to serve as an
embarrassing reminder to Beijing that the outside world is aware of
China’s many ‘issues’, even if many mainland Chinese are not.
As
an added bonus to protestors, the presence of a large group of
demonstrators outside the Toronto venue of one of Hu’s scheduled diner
engagements, forced the Chinese president to humble himself by entering
through a back door
For a Chinese dignitary, being forced to
use a back door or service entrance, in a manner similar to a cleaner
or trade person, is considered to be a highly degrading act and an
extreme loss of face.
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"When you are the president of the world's most populous country and you have to sneak in the back door, that's a disgrace,"
A Lin Representative, Formosa (Taiwanese) Association for Public Affairs
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The presence of overseas Chinese and foreign demonstrators during the visit was largely kept out of the Chinese media.
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1.10.05 20:08
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When is a Chinese not a Chinese?
As anybody who reads the papers will know, stories of
Chinese acquiring fake identities and posing as Vietnamese, Koreans and
even Japanese, in order to secure a new life, are nothing new. However
the old stories took on a new twist earlier this month with the
announcement of the arrest of Yu Tao, a Chinese man living in Japan who
confessed to helping countless fellow Chinese to pass themselves off as
Japanese in order to obtain new lives. In this case though, their
identity swaps were all virtual, and their new lives came with a charge
of 1 Yuan an hour.
According to media report Yu Tao, the 29 year
old owner of a Tokyo computer hardware store, was arrested by
authorities from Nagasaki prefecture after he was found to have set up
a series of servers that allowed Chinese users to illegally access
Japanese networks for playing "Lineage II", a popular online game. When
questioned, Yu admitted to setting up a network of proxy servers in his
home to act as 'relay stations' for Chinese games players. Making it
appear that the Chinese player were resident in Japan, and allowing
them to bypass restrictions on the Japanese "Lineage II" network that
prevent overseas users from logging in and playing games.
After
admitting to setting up the servers, Yu is reported to have told police
that he acted in collaboration with an Internet cafe owner on the
Chinese mainland to allow Chinese gamers to access the Japanese system.
It was not announced who owned the Internet cafe or if the
investigation into Yu was also to pursue them.
Though largely an
isolated incident, Yu's actions are likely to further fan fears in
Japan that non Japanese Asians are increasingly becoming involved in
criminal activities, and that many are purposefully working to the
detriment of Japanese society while enjoying the advantages that
Japanese residence holds over residence in their own countries.
Prior
to the Yu case, there had already been a number of strong calls by
right leaning politicians and the Japanese public for there to be
increased scrutiny of non Japanese Asians, and for tighter controls to
be placed on visas issued to Korean, mainland Chinese and Filipina
workers and students. Yu's actions are only likely to add to these
calls.
Despite the possible repercussions that Yu's actions may
have in increasing suspicion of non-Japanese Asians in Japan, some
China watchers have however seen traces of irony in a situation where a
Chinese man was helping Chinese teenagers to pretend to be Japanese, if
only virtually.
Home and Away
In
addition to the charges that he faces in Japan, Yu may also be liable
to charges in his native country because of China's strict laws on game
imports.
Under current legislation, Beijing must approve all online games before they can be sold or otherwise disseminated in China . Those caught distributing or facilitating access to games that have not been approved are liable for legal censure.
As
Yu was facilitating access to the Japanese version of "Lineage II",
which would not have ever been submitted for official approval, it is
likely that he could be liable for legal action regardless of the
status of any current or future versions of "Lineage II" in China.
In line with possible charges against Yu, his Chinese accomplice, if found to exist, could face similar actions.
Double Standards?
While
Beijing may be keen to come down hard on Yu and his accomplices so as
to make examples of them, and to establish that it is serious about its
online restrictions, sceptics have however voiced that Beijing may be
less willing to act again them because their crimes were committed
against a Japanese online game network than it would had they been
allowing access to one in a more neutral country like South Korean.
While no figures are immediately available, the scale of Yu's operation has been described as 'massive'.
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1.10.05 20:09
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