Japan

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore, dies. Lee Kuan Yew, who transformed Singapore into one of Asia’s wealthiest and least corrupt countries during his time as founding father and first prime minister, died on Monday. Lee was prime minister beginning in 1959, after Singapore gained full self-government from the British, until 1990. While his leadership was often criticized for suppressing freedom, his advocacy of “Asian values” and development models succeeded in making Singapore an international hub of business, culture, and finance. The funeral for Lee, to be held on Sunday, will be attended by many current and former world leaders, including India’s Narendra Modi, Australia’s Tony Abbott, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo, and a U.S. delegation that includes Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Thomas Donilon, and Kirk Wagar, the current U.S. ambassador to Singapore. 2. Indonesian president completes first bilateral foreign visits. This week, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo traveled to Japan and China, marking his first bilateral foreign visits since taking office last October. He started his tour with a four-day official visit to Japan, a fellow democracy and maritime neighbor, where Jokowi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to boost security and economic ties and launched an initiative to increase Japanese investment in Indonesia. Jokowi was also wooed by Japan’s bullet train system and is considering introducing a Japanese system in Indonesia. On Thursday, Jokowi traveled to China, where he signed a number of memorandums of understanding. Courting controversy after some media outlets reported that he said China had no legal claim to the South China Sea, Jokowi clarified that Indonesia would remain neutral in the dispute. 3. South Korea announces intention to join China’s proposed development bank. South Korea’s Ministry of Finance released a statement on Thursday it would seek to be a founding member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), through which Beijing hopes to fund infrastructure development throughout the region. While the United States has voiced concerns about the AIIB’s governance, South Korea’s statement makes reference to the importance of ensuring high levels of transparency and governing structure, tied into existing multilateral development banks. Seoul joins the UK, France, Germany, and Italy as U.S. allies that have announced their intention to be founding members of the AIIB. The move represents Seoul’s latest attempt to navigate increasing rivalry between China, its largest trading partner, and the United States, its security guarantor. Currently the U.S. ally is actively debating the U.S. military’s introduction of Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense systems, which Washington promotes as a deterrent to the North Korean threat but Beijing claims is a thinly veiled U.S. attempt to constrict China. 4. Chinese police raid NGO offices. This week, Chinese police forces seized financial documents and computers from a high-profile nongovernmental organization (NGO). Members of the anti-discrimination group, Beijing Yirenping Center, said that twenty men in police uniforms burst into their offices before dawn on Tuesday morning. On Friday, Lu Jun, head of Yirenping, announced an ongoing investigation into the seizures, which he claims were illegal. Lu told reporters that the raid was likely in response to his organization’s campaign to pressure the Chinese government into releasing five detained women’s rights activists. Police administrators have not commented on or confirmed the raid. Since President Xi Jinping came to power, dozens of human rights activists have been apprehended as part of a broad crackdown on social activism and political dissent. The detention of the five activists on International Women’s Day captured the world’s attention, prompting calls from U.S. ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, demanding their release. 5. Okinawa’s governor orders halt to base construction. Early this week, Takeshi Onaga, the governor of Okinawa, ordered the suspension of work on a new American military airfield at Camp Schwab. The relocation of U.S. forces to a base near the village of Henoko has been delayed for years by local opposition, who fear the environmental impact of construction and the long-term implications of a new base for Okinawa’s future. Onaga, who was elected governor last December in part because of his promise to halt construction of the base, instructed Japan’s defense ministry to stop work after local officials found builders had damaged coral reefs. Tokyo has said it will ignore the order and continue with the project; Onaga has threatened to revoke a maritime drilling permit should survey work and construction continue. About half of U.S. military personnel—which total nearly fifty thousand—are stationed on Okinawa. Bonus: Burger King perfume soon to be on sale in Japan. For one day only, on April 1, Burger King will release a Whopper-scented perfume to the Japanese public. The fragrance, incidentally named “Flame-Grilled,” will not be the first Burger King scent to hit the market. Back in 2008, the fast food joint released “Flame by BK,” a body spray for men described as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.” This year’s scent will be available for the budget-friendly price of 5,000 yen, or roughly four U.S. dollars.

Frank Mondelli graduated from Swarthmore College in 2014 and is currently a Fulbright Fellow in Okinawa, Japan. Seventy years into the postwar era, Okinawa is still grappling with the issues stemming from the large U.S. military presence on its soil. Recently, tensions between local citizens and U.S. and Japanese militaries over the construction of a new base have reached a critical point, resulting in an escalating series of incidents. While the U.S.-Japan alliance as a whole benefits strongly from Okinawa’s current role in their partnership, better communication needs to occur between antibase protestors and military officials if they are to peacefully and constructively navigate political and social realities. The relocation of the Futenma base has been a contentious issue for decades. The argument for relocation, as it is advertised to the public through flyers and other forms of press, is simple: it would lessen the burden on Okinawa’s heavily populated south region. Opponents of the new base, meanwhile, criticize projected environmental damage to Okinawa’s coral reefs and native species; and since construction started in August 2014, sit-ins and other demonstrations outside the new construction zone have been increasing in frequency and intensity, often with a turn-out of several thousand citizens. Seafaring expeditions have produced evidence that the new construction has already caused serious environmental damage. In addition, many activists express their fear that Okinawa will continue to play its subservient “postwar” role for decades to come. Over the last two weeks they have held academic lectures outside the gate at night with powerpoint presentations, where some scholars have thus far discussed their theories on the connections between 9/11, terrorism, Henoko, and even the Islamic State. Many of these demonstrations are recorded live and spread through Twitter. The increase in protests has also led to an increase in incidents between the protestors, American military police, and the Japanese Coast Guard. For example, the Japanese Coast Guard has been accused of forcibly taking protestors out several kilometers from the shore and leaving them there. Many protestors view such events not as isolated incidents but as only the latest in a long history of abuse suffered by the Okinawan people. Tactics of some protesters are equally dangerous, including firing lasers into the cockpits of approaching aircraft at night, releasing balloons intended to disrupt planes’ maneuvers, and attempting to blockade construction on sea in canoes. A recent string of remarks by senior U.S. officials that has been viewed as insulting by local Okinawans is only further fueling anger and discontent. For example, early this year, a Marine Corps deputy public affairs officer wrote of protestors who suffered police brutality: “the attempt to appear injured is laughable when you see it in person.” Three weeks ago Major Tim Kao, a commanding officer in the Marine Corps, accused demonstrators of being paid by the Japan Communist Party. Activists have claimed that comments like these turn political free speech and protest into personal slander, and that they miss the point of the entire antibase protest. This year, with construction of the new base underway and the seventieth anniversary of the Pacific War, the stakes are as high as ever. All sides share responsibility to work toward peaceful resolution of their disputes. To help alleviate some of the protestors’ concerns, the United States should emphasize intercultural unity and transparency. The U.S. consulate in Naha and many of the bases already host American-style events for Japanese communities. Such events should be held on a larger and more systematic basis, and would be valuable for American personnel who are unfamiliar with Japanese culture. The Japanese government should also devote more resources to promoting Okinawan culture and languages; such acknowledgement would satisfy Okinawans who believe their culture and way of speaking has been historically marginalized. Meanwhile, activists should cease methods of protest which put American personnel in danger or otherwise create unnecessary friction between the two communities. Some protestors use arguments of historical oppression to justify hate speech that discriminates against all Americans on the island. These instances do not go unnoticed among personnel and in turn have the potential to create an unsavory opinion of all Okinawans in return. In addition to promoting intercultural interaction, all parties involved must work together to create safe and open environments for constructive discussion. Open community discussions in which locals and personnel are encouraged to verbally express their frustrations may help serve as useful and educational for both groups. In addition, the U.S. and Japanese governments should take and communicate serious steps to reduce and assess environmental impact, implement a plan for tighter oversight over the police forces, and release statements apologizing for the treatment of protestors and insensitive comments (or at least better train officials with managing their public image). In return, protestors should be receptive to these efforts, such as collaborating on the environmental assessment efforts with their own findings and research, and they should also be willing to compromise on some of their larger, more ideological goals. Activists should also ensure that their protests do not harm personnel and that they too play an active role in maintaining peaceful relations. The main objective on all sides should be to ensure that human rights, whether physical or political, are protected to the highest degree possible, while still ensuring that the U.S.-Japan alliance is maintained and strengthened.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Australian prime minister announces new strategy to confront terrorism threat. Following the release of an official report on the terrorist attack in Sydney in December, Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivered an address at the Australian Federal Police headquarters announcing a new national counterterrorism strategy. A senior official will be appointed to oversee the new measures, which include tightening immigration, curbing the rights of Australians involved in terrorism, strengthening policing powers, and cracking down on hate speech. Abbott asserted that, “on all metrics, the threat to Australia is worsening,” pointing to recent arrests and ongoing serious investigations of terrorist suspects. His remarks provoked criticism from Muslim advocates and leaders who felt that Abbott was stigmatizing the entire Muslim community. 2. Hong Kong woman sentenced for abusing maid. Law Wan-tung, who was convicted of beating, starving, and threatening her Indonesian maid, was sentenced to six years in prison (as well as a small fine of less than US$2,000) for her crimes. The maximum sentence was seven years. In a statement, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, the abuse victim, stated that she thought the sentence was too light and sends “the wrong signal to employers who mistreat or violate the rights of their domestic workers.” The case has brought to light the difficult conditions for domestic helpers in Hong Kong. As many as 300,000 women, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, work in Hong Kong, and are, by law, treated as second-class citizens. 3. Xi unveils his “Four Comprehensives.” Chinese President Xi Jinping revealed his new political theory to the world this week in front-page commentary and headline broadcast throughout state news outlets. The People’s Daily enumerated the Four Comprehensives as such: comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society; comprehensively deepen reform; comprehensively govern the nation according to law; and comprehensively strictly govern the Party. The last comprehensive, on Communist Party discipline, is seen as a reference to Xi’s antigraft efforts, which have been a hallmark of his first years in power. Xi’s slogan follows a long line of political slogans from China’s leaders, from Deng Xiaoping’s “Reform and Opening Up” to Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents” to Hu Jintao’s “Scientific Outlook on Development.” 4. Anti-corruption court in Bangladesh issues arrest warrants for former prime minister. Begum Khaleda Zia, former prime minister and leader of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), stands accused of embezzling $650,000 while serving as Bangladesh’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006. Zia has denied the charges, claiming they are politically motivated. The rivalry between Zia and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has characterized politics in Bangladesh for the past two decades. In January 2014, Zia called for her supporters to boycott the national elections; Hasina’s Awami League swept to power with more than half of the seats uncontested. Since January, on the one-year anniversary of the national elections described by the BNP as a farce, political protests by BNP supporters have led to more than one hundred deaths. Amid the ongoing violence, a Bangladesh-born American known for his blog about secularism in politics was hacked to death in Dhaka on Thursday. 5. Family of jailed Malaysian opposition leader files for royal pardon. After Malaysia’s highest court upheld a five-year prison sentence for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of sodomy earlier this month, the leader is now back in jail. Anwar has maintained the charge against him was politically motivated; his family claims he has been “tyrannized” and his health is at risk the longer he remains behind bars. Despite an initial denial from Anwar’s lawyers, family members are seeking a royal pardon that would allow him to retain his parliamentary seat. The petition for his pardon, however, will carry no weight in the Malaysian government if not signed by Anwar himself. Bonus: Mummy found inside of a Chinese Buddha statue. CT scans done by researchers at the Netherlands’ Meander Medical Center reveal a detailed view of the preserved remains of a Buddhist monk, estimated to have died in the twelfth century. The mummy is the only one of its kind ever found. The process of self-mummification was considered by some Buddhists to be a form of enlightenment and involves embalming prior to death, rather than posthumously as was done in Egypt. Correction: The Meander Medical Center is located in the Netherlands, not Norway as originally stated.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, Ariella Rotenberg, and Sharone Tobias look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Myanmar declares martial law in Kokang. President Thein Sein announced a state of emergency and three months of martial law in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, on the border with China, after a series of clashes between the Myanmar army and armed Kokang rebels. Under martial law, administrative and judicial power has been granted to the army’s commander in chief; the imposition of martial law is aimed at securing a ceasefire and political dialogue well in advance of general elections later this year. The conflict is a setback for Myanmar’s semi-civilian government, which took power in 2011 after nearly fifty years of military rule. Myanmar is turning to neighboring China for help even as tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing into Yunnan province from Kokang. 2. Japan emerges from recession, though not as strongly as some hoped. Japan’s economy expanded in the last quarter of 2014 after contraction in the two previous quarters, growing at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent. Though a positive sign, this was lower than economists’ expectation of 3.7 percent growth. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pro-growth policies—known as Abenomics—have had some successes: for example, borrowing costs are being kept low, the stock market is up, and annual exports increased in January the most since late 2013. However, it also is to blame for a sales tax hike last April that precipitated lower consumption and the two quarters of contraction, which required the Bank of Japan to expand monetary stimulus. A second sales tax hike, initially scheduled for October 2015, has been delayed. 3. Modi targets defense industry in his latest drive of the ‘Make in India’ campaign. In an effort to reduce India’s reliance on defense imports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on foreign companies to manufacture defense equipment in India. As the world’s top importer of weaponry, Modi said on Wednesday, “this is an area where we do not want to be number one,” in his inauguration at Aero India 2015 in Bangalore. The defense industry announced $8 billion of spending for new warships, and Modi pledged to ease the process of setting up defense manufacturing joint ventures in India. Israel’s defense minister met with Modi on Thursday, welcoming greater defense cooperation; Israel is already one of India’s top arms suppliers. 4. Indonesia to execute two Australians for drug trafficking despite diplomatic pressure from Australia. In another threat to relations between Indonesia and Australia, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that the execution of two Australian national on death row will not be delayed, despite the protestations of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. In discussing the case with reporters, Abbott reminded Jokowi of the contributions Australia made in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami and asked that he repay that generosity by sparing the two Australians. Indonesian authorities arrested Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33—members of the “Bali Nine” drug trafficking ring—in 2005 as they attempted to smuggle eighteen pounds of heroin out of Indonesia and to Australia; the penalty for drug trafficking is death. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has been in contact with Indonesia’s vice president in continued efforts to broker a deal. 5. Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces charges for botched rice subsidy scheme. Thailand’s attorney general filed charges against the former prime minister for a rice subsidy scheme in which the government bought rice from Thai farmers at above-market rates, costing the government billions of dollars. She faces a jail sentence of up to ten years for criminal negligence and will be banned for politics for five years. Supporters of the charges say that the rice subsidy scheme was a corrupt plan to buy rural votes; skeptics believe the prosecution is just a way to curb the influence of Yingluck and her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra. The action comes after the military seized power in May 2014, claiming to restore order after months of protests against Yingluck’s government. Yingluck’s brother Thaksin was also ousted by a military coup in 2006; the Shinawatra family is popular among rural voters but disliked by the middle class and elite. The indictment of Yingluck by the military-led government , who was democratically elected, has led to strained ties with the United States. Bonus: Mark Zuckerberg and Prince William tackle the Mandarin language in Chinese New Year greetings. At the start of the year of the sheep—or goat or ram, for some—Facebook’s chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg and Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, have both sent new year greetings to Chinese speakers. Zuckerberg seems keen to make China his Facebook friend, mentioning that his office will have a party to ring in the new year; Prince William’s words received an equally warm reception ahead of his bridge-building tour of China next month.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, Ariella Rotenberg, and Sharone Tobias look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. After nearly a year of president’s rule, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sweeps to power in Delhi state elections. The AAP won sixty-seven out of the seventy legislative seats in the Delhi assembly, a stunning victory that surprised many. The party was founded by Arvind Kejriwal in 2012 and grew out of a protest movement against corruption; it made its debut in the December 2013 Delhi elections when it joined with the Congress party to form the Delhi government—with Kejriwal serving as chief minister. Kejriwal resigned after only forty-nine days due to a lack of support for an anti-corruption bill, even after staging sit-ins and protests in Delhi. He will be sworn in as chief minister of Delhi for the second time on Saturday, ending almost a year of president’s rule. With AAP’s historic win, many are left wondering what this means for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which holds the majority in India’s national parliament but only won three seats in the Delhi elections. 2. Malaysian court rejects opposition leader’s appeal. Anwar Ibrahim, the charismatic leader of Malaysia’s opposition, will serve a five-year prison sentence for sodomy after his final appeal to the Federal Court was rejected. He was acquitted in January 2012, but the acquittal was overturned in March 2014 after a government appeal. This will be Anwar’s second stint in jail for a sodomy conviction (the first conviction, in 2000, was overturned in 2004). Anwar, at age sixty-seven, will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and banned from running for office for five years after his release, effectively ending his political career. Many analysts see the conviction as politically motivated, as Anwar was the linchpin of an ideologically varied opposition that won the popular vote in 2013 general elections (but failed to gain a majority in parliament). 3. United States files World Trade Organization (WTO) case against China. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced that the Obama administration was filing a broad case at the WTO, accusing China of providing illegal export subsidies for seven industries ranging from textiles to seafood. The request for formal talks at the WTO focuses on a Chinese program that allows local officials to subsidize smaller exporters through “common service platforms” at nearly 200 “demonstration bases,” or special government-supported industrial clusters. While difficult to quantify the amount of subsidies involved, the WTO case alleges China provided around one billion dollars over three years to suppliers offering discounted or free services to Chinese companies through the common service platforms, thereby undermining fair competition. The Chinese Commerce Ministry has “expressed regret” over the Obama administration’s decision to elevate the case to the WTO, defending its policies as “part of the transformation and upgrade of [Chinese] foreign trade.” 4. Tony Abbott survives recall vote. Lawmakers in Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party voted against a “spill motion," effectively a no-confidence vote, to oust the prime minister and the foreign minister. Abbott said that the “matter is behind us,” and vowed to focus on job, families, and the economy. The vote was initiated because of growing dissatisfaction with the prime minister; the governing party had trouble getting any major initiatives from last year’s budget passed through the senate, and Kate Carnell, the head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that business confidence had fallen in the country. The opposition Labor Party had twice gotten rid of leaders when in power before losing an election in September 2013, a fate that Abbott has said he wants to avoid. 5. Chinese billionaire given death penalty. Chinese mining tycoon Liu Han was executed this week on orders from the High People’s Court in the central province of Hubei. Liu had been sentenced to death last May for charges of organized crime, gang activity, and murder, “the largest prosecution of a criminal gang by mainland authorities in recent memory.” As chairman of the Hanlong Group, a congolomerate of real estate, mining, and energy businesses, Liu had assets close to $6.4 billion at the time of his arrest. Investigators have linked Liu to the son of Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security chief, whose arrest was one of the highest profile since President Xi Jinping began his effort to root out graft and corruption at all levels of government. BONUS: Japan opens robot-run hotel. The Henn-na Hotel, set open this July in Nagasaki, will be staffed by ten humanoid robots that speak Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English, and will serve as receptionists, porters, and housekeepers. The seventy-two-room hotel will also feature face recognition technology on doors rather than room keys. The hotel will employ some human staff, but the owning company Huis Ten Bosch’s president aims to have 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots in the future.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, Ariella Rotenberg, and Sharone Tobias look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Taiwanese plane crashes into river, resulting in at least thirty-five deaths. TransAsia GE235 lost engine power shortly after takeoff from Taipei’s Songshan Airport on Wednesday. The twin-propeller plane was carrying fifty-eight passenger and crew; eight are still unaccounted for. Preliminary reports suggest that the pilots shut down the wrong engine after the other stalled; the pilots, both of whom were killed, have been widely praised for avoiding buildings in Taipei’s urban center. Harrowing imagery from a car dashcam shows the plane losing altitude and clipping a bridge before crashing into the Keelung River. The accident is the second in seven months for TransAsia Airways. 2. Japanese Diet adopts anti-terrorism bill. On Thursday Japan’s Lower House passed a resolution denouncing terrorism as well as encouraging the Japanese government to step up humanitarian aid to countries in the Middle East and Africa; the Upper House passed the bill on Friday. The bill was prepared by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito; concerns voiced by opposition parties resulted in a modified resolution with toned-down language. The resolution follows the recent beheading of two Japanese hostages by ISIS: Haruna Yukawa on January 24 and Kenji Goto on January 30. On January 20, ISIS had asked Japan for a $200 million ransom—the same amount Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had offered in non-military assistance for countries working to counter the ISIS threat—which Japan refused to pay. The resolution comes at a time of domestic debate in Japan over the international role of its military; Prime Minister Abe is seeking a change in the pacifist constitution that would widen the legal options for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. 3. Indonesian President embarks on his first bilateral visit abroad. Joko "Jokowi" Widodo arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to hold meetings with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on issues of maritime boundaries and the treatment of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, along with economic and security issues. His visit coincided with the release of a controversial vacuum cleaner ad in Malaysia telling its audiences to “fire your Indonesian maid now.” The treatment of Indonesian domestic helpers has been a frequent area of contention between the two countries; the vacuum ad has stirred tension just in time for Jokowi’s official visit to deepen bilateral ties. He will also travel to Brunei and the Philippines to complete his five-day introductory visit to ASEAN member countries. 4. China cuts reserve rate to promote growth. For the first time in over two years, China’s central bank cut reserve requirements. The move dials back the amount of cash banks must hold from lending, freeing up more money for banks to lend and hopefully stimulating the Chinese economy. The Chinese economy is facing a number of pressures, both internal—such as high local government debt and a slowdown in real estate investment—and external—including falling global commodity prices and easing measures in other countries. According to an official survey, China’s manufacturing sector shrank in January of this year, the first time it has done so since September 2012. In 2014, China missed its targeted growth rate (7.5 percent), posting 7.4 percent for the year, the lowest in over two decades. 5. South Korean soldier gets the death penalty for killing fellow troops. A military court has sentenced to death a twenty-three-year old sergeant, surnamed Lim, for killing five unarmed colleagues in South Korea barracks, including a superior officer. He was also found guilty of defecting from his unit with weapons. No executions have been carried out in South Korea since 1997, so the ruling is more likely to result in life in prison without parole. The soldier’s defense lawyer said that he would appeal the case to a higher military court, arguing that his client was the victim of bullying and suffered from paranoia. The incident was the worst killing spree since 2005, when a soldier killed eight people and injured two. In South Korea, all males are conscripted for two years of military duty, and incidents of bullying, suicide, and mental health problems are not infrequent. Bonus: Argentina’s president mocks Chinese accent. During a visit to Beijing centering on much needed bilateral economic and infrastructure agreements, Argentine President Christina Fernández de Kirchner caused a furor by mimicking a Chinese accent on Twitter, swapping L’s for R’s in the Spanish words “petróleo and arroz” (petroleum and rice). President Kirchner followed up with a half-apology, even sending a final tweet from Beijing with “goodbye” in Chinese.

Kenji Goto, the freelance journalist taken hostage by ISIS, was reportedly murdered this weekend, and a video released by the terrorist organization claimed that “Japan’s nightmare had begun.” Prime Minister Abe ordered his government to intensify security at home and do all it could to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens abroad. The Prime Minister also announced that, despite ISIS’ threat of retaliation, his country would increase the amount of medical and food aid dedicated to those fleeing from Syria and Iraq. The release of a video purportedly showing the death of Kenji Goto struck a deep chord in Japan, as it did for all of us across the world hoping that somehow he would emerge alive. But his life became entangled in a complex web of negotiations over the release of another hostage, a Jordanian pilot. In Goto’s third and final appearance alive on video, ISIS demanded the release of a death row prisoner held by Jordan for a suicide bombing in Amman in exchange for a downed pilot from the Jordanian Air Force. At the onset of the crisis, ISIS demanded a $200 million ransom for the release of Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa. Then Goto appeared with a photo of Yukawa, murdered. Late last week, Goto’s fate seemed to take a back seat to this high stakes negotiations between ISIS and the Jordanian government, as pressure built for the Jordanians to pull back from their role in the air strikes against the terrorist organization. The Japanese government stated it had no direct contact with ISIS, despite a week-long diplomatic effort to find a channel of communication. Goto’s fate touched the hearts of many in Japan despite an initial sense that he should not have been in such a dangerous area. Support grew as people in Japan and around the world posted the phrase “I am Kenji” on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. As a freelance journalist, Kenji Goto covered conflicts in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria; and, his work was featured on NHK and other documentary coverage of the world’s conflict zones. Goto’s videos and photos are full of the faces of children who lost their families and their homes in the midst of violent conflict. Similarly, closer to home, Goto turned his camera on the children who lost their families in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He lectured with UNICEF Japan and in schools, advocating that Japanese ensure that these children were not forgotten. In an interview aired by NHK this morning, Goto himself put it this way: “What we must do is to continue to reach out, in every way possible, to these young lives, to support their hopes for the future.” As he entered Syria for what would be his last time, Goto took a video of himself, showing his press card and his Japanese passport. In that video, he spoke calmly and clearly as he asked the Japanese people to remember that if anything happened to him it was his own responsibility and not in any way the responsibility of the Syrian people. Immediately after learning of her son’s apparent murder at the hands of ISIS, Goto’s mother asked that he be remembered as “a kind and courageous man.” His wife today in a written statement spoke not only of her love for her husband and the father of her three children (one of whom is only weeks old), but also of her pride in the work he did for those in need across the world. Let us today join the Japanese people in honoring Kenji Goto, a compassionate and brave man who believed deeply in speaking for those in brutal conflicts around the globe who need our help. As a friend and fellow journalist wrote of Kenji, he was “a voice of humanity in the midst of atrocity.”

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, Ariella Rotenberg, and Sharone Tobias look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. The fate of Japanese ISIS hostages still unknown. The fate of two Japanese hostages captured this past Tuesday by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) remains unclear. The terrorist organization released a video on Tuesday threatening to kill Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa in seventy-two hours unless Japan paid a ransom of $200 million; that deadline expired early Friday morning with no news of their status. ISIS captured Haruna Yakawa, the founder of a private security company, in northern Syria in August 2014. Kenji Goto, a freelance journalist, arrived in Syria in late October with the aim of establishing contact with ISIS in hopes that he could convince them to release Yukawa. Friday morning, Goto’s mother held a news conference asking the Japanese government to save her son. 2. China’s economy slows, prompting a new look at stress tests, loans, and other indicators. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.4 percent in 2014, the lowest growth rate in twenty-four years and missing Beijing’s official target (which was 7.5 percent) for the first time since 1998. Reasons for slower economic growth include a cooling property market, deflationary pressures, and bad debt—the bad debt ratio of Chinese banks climbed to 1.6 percent at the end of the year, up from 1.16 percent in September. In response, China’s bank regulators are conducting stress tests, boosting capital requirements, and requiring banks to maintain adequate provisions for loan losses. The country’s manufacturing sector also contracted for the second consecutive month. Not everything is dreary, however; consumption and services grew by 3 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. 3. President Obama becomes the only sitting U.S. president to travel to India twice. President Barack Obama is traveling to India this weekend as the first American chief guest to participate in India’s Republic Day celebrations. Each year, a foreign leader is invited to attend as the guest of honor, and Indian President Narendra Modi’s invitation to Obama this year is particularly symbolic. The two leaders met in Washington in September last year, which resulted in a joint statement to revitalize the existing partnership and identify new areas for collaboration. Just four months later, the leaders have an opportunity to assess progress and infuse further confidence in the U.S.-India relationship, as they celebrate the day India became a republic in 1950. 4. Thailand’s Yingluck Shinawatra impeached, faces possible criminal charges. Thailand’s former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was removed from power in May 2014 by a military coup, was banned from Thai politics for five years by the junta’s legislative assembly by a vote of 190 to 18. The junta also announced that she would be indicted on a charge of criminal negligence for a botched rice subsidy scheme—if convicted, Yingluck could be imprisoned for up to ten years. Her brother and former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was similarly deposed by the military in 2006; he now lives in exile in Dubai and London. Detested by the Bangkok political establishment, Yingluck, like her brother, has strong support from rural provinces, in part because of subsidies for rice farmers. 5. Fighting over constitution in Nepal. Nepal plunged toward crisis this week after feuding politicians failed to meet a January 22 deadline to table a new constitution for the country. The opposition alliance, led by the Maoist faction of the Communist Party, wants the new constitution to carve Nepali provinces along ethnic lines, a provision the governing Nepali Congress Party coalition opposes. The political parties also remained at loggerheads over new electoral and judicial systems. Nepal’s political parties have been trying to reach an agreement on a new constitution since the first Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008, but they continue to miss deadlines. Bonus: Chinese city blames bacon for pollution. Heavy industry and vehicle emissions are known contributors to pollution in China. Recently, however, Chinese officials reported that traditional methods of preserving pork have also contributed to smog problems in rural Sichuan province. Some bacon-smoking sites have been forcibly demolished, raising concern that parts of Sichuan may not have enough bacon to ring in the Chinese New Year next month.

Compared with the high-profile national Memorial Day for the Nanjing Massacre last month, the date January 18 passed uneventfully. Chinese media appeared to have forgotten that one hundred years ago, on exactly that day, Japan presented Chinese President Yuan Shikai (Yuan Shih-Kai) with requests that would have turned China into a de facto Japanese protectorate. The Japanese requests included five groups of secret demands that became known as the Twenty-One Demands. Groups One and Two were designed to confirm Japan’s dominant position in Shandong, southern Manchuria, and eastern Inner Mongolia. Group Three would acknowledge Japan’s special interests in an industrial complex in central China. Group Four forbade China from giving any further coastal or island concessions to foreign powers except for Japan. The most outrageous was Group Five. Group Five required China to install Japanese advisors who could take effective control of Chinese government, economy, and military. These demands would have had a similar impact to that of what the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty had on Korea in 1910. These notorious demands were issued at a time of shifting balance of power in East Asia. With the Qing dynasty’s humiliating defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), regional dominance for the first time had moved from China to Japan. Japan’s ambitions in China were further emboldened by its decisive victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), which affirmed the Japanese presence in south Manchuria and Korea. The 1911 Revolution brought an end to the Qing dynasty and ushered in the Republican era in China, but China remained a pushover in the face of pressure from Western powers. Furthermore, Yuan’s ruling status itself was shaky due to threats from competing local warlords. World War I granted Japan a perfect opportunity to push the envelope even more with China. As the war was underway in Europe, the Japanese hoped that other major powers would show little interest in countering Japanese expansion in China. For these reasons, Japanese Foreign Minister Kato Takaaki was convinced that the filing of an ultimatum buttressed by the war threat would cause China to accept all the demands. Fully aware of the negative reaction the demands would cause, Japan asked China to keep them confidential and threatened to take “drastic actions” if they were leaked. Contrary to the popular Chinese image of Yuan being a traitor, archived history suggests that Yuan and his top associates worked hard to minimize the harms caused to China’s sovereignty by the Twenty-One Demands. Soon after studying the Japanese request, Yuan instructed top Chinese diplomats that by no means should China submit to the demands of Group Five. Headed by then Foreign Minister Lou Tseng-Tsiang, the Chinese negotiators sought to stall the negotiation process for as long as possible. Between February 2 and April 17, twenty-five rounds of negotiations were held. Disregarding the Japanese threat, Yuan had his political advisor leak the full contents of the Twenty-One Demands to a correspondent for the Times in Beijing, who then reported them on February 12. In seeking international support, Yuan also relied on the traditional Chinese strategy of playing one power against another (yi yi zhi yi). He hoped that a perceived threat to European and U.S. political and economic interests in China would lead them to constrain Japan’s aggressiveness. Although the United States continued with a low-risk strategy in China, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan warned that the United States would not recognize infringements on Chinese sovereignty and the Open Door policy. As author Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale documented in the book An Indiscreet Chronicle from the Pacific, the possible intervention of Great Britain and the United States was indeed a concern for Japan in deliberating what final steps to take on May 6. In addition, Yuan also sought to affect Japanese domestic politics by mobilizing the support of Genro, who were angered by the government’s failure to consult them before drawing up the demands. As the negotiations evolved into an inevitable crisis at the end of April, the open opposition of elder statesmen like Matsukata played a decisive role in forcing the Japanese government to drop the demands of Group Five in the ultimatum delivered to China on May 7. Not surprisingly, Yuan, who had no intention of risking war with Japan, accepted the ultimatum on May 9. The final form of the treaty was signed on May 25, 1915. With the removal of the most odious provision, however, the new treaty gave Japan no more than what it already had in China. Yuan, whose credibility and popularity as a leader was further weakened as a result of his appeasement policy, viewed accepting the treaty as a “terrible shame” (qichi daru) and made May 9 China’s National Humiliation Day. The Twenty-One Demands nurtured a considerable amount of public ill-will towards Japan, and the upsurge in nationalism is still deeply felt today in China’s handling of Sino-Japanese relations. To be sure, times have changed. This time, the pendulum of power is swinging in China’s favor. Given the ongoing territorial disputes in East Asia, the episode that occurred exactly one century ago can still provide critical insights into how a rising regional hegemon like China should behave, and how less powerful states could play the power game to better protect their national interests.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, Ariella Rotenberg, and Sharone Tobias look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Pope Francis visits Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The pope made his second trip to Asia in less than two years, a sign of his “interest and pastoral concern for the people of that vast continent,” visiting Sri Lanka and Philippines (which have Catholic populations of 6 percent and 81 percent, respectively). His first stop was Colombo, where he preached peace and reconciliation and said that Sri Lanka must heal divisions from the country’s twenty-five year civil war. After holding mass in the capital, Francis traveled to Tamil territory in the north to visit the Our Lady of Madhu shrine, a Catholic pilgrimage site. It was the first visit by a pope to the region. In the Philippines, Asia’s only predominately Christian country, the pope denounced corruption and reasserted the Catholic Church’s opposition to artificial contraception. Francis will hold three masses in the capital of Manila and in Tacloban, the province most affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. 2. Kerry wraps up visits in India and Pakistan. In advance of U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to India at the end of the month, Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to India over the weekend to lead the U.S. delegation for the Vibrant Gujarat Investment Summit, hosted in the home state of Indian Prime Minister Modi. This is Kerry’s second trip in the past six months to India, signifying growing commitment to expanding the U.S.-India relationship. While there, Kerry also met with the prime minister of Bhutan, making him the first U.S. cabinet member to meet with a Bhutanese government official. On Monday, Kerry traveled to Pakistan for the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue Ministerial where he emphasized, among other things, the importance of eradicating all militant groups in Pakistan. His message comes a month after militants attacked a school in Peshawar, killing close to 150 people, the majority of them children. 3. Hong Kong’s leader backpedals on democracy. Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s chief executive, addressed the legislative council for the first time since pro-democracy street protests came to an end in December 2014. Leung asserted that Hong Kong would face an economic standstill and would “denigrate into anarchy” if it was granted full-fledged democracy. Leung was heavily criticized by pro-democracy leaders, including Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of the Labor Party, who accused Leung of suppressing free speech. 4. Turks arrested in China after being accused of aiding terror suspects. A Chinese state-run newspaper reported on Wednesday that Shanghai police arrested ten Turkish citizens and two Chinese citizens. The twelve arrested were accused of selling Turkish passports to terror suspects in Xinjiang. The suspects, nine ethnic Uighurs, are accused of trying to use the faulty passports to leave the country illegally and travel abroad; Syria was reportedly one of their possible destinations. Meanwhile, two days prior, in China’s western province of Xinjiang, state media reported that security forces shot and killed six Uighur men after they attacked police. These deaths are added to the more than one hundred people killed in Xinjiang in recent months during clashes between Chinese security forces and Uighurs. 5. Japan approves record defense budget. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet endorsed a nearly five trillion yen ($42 billion) defense budget for the year, including plans to buy surveillance aircraft, drones, amphibious vehicles, and F-35 fighter jets to help counter China’s rising assertiveness and the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program. While the defense budget is only about 1 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product—roughly half the ratio of China and a quarter of that of the United States—military spending remains controversial in Japan. After a decade of cuts, the new budget marks the third consecutive year of increased defense spending, a sign that Japan seeks to become a stronger player in regional security. BONUS: Hong Kong man caught entering China with ninety-four smuggled iPhones strapped to his body. Shenzhen inspectors caught the man because of his odd gait; the man had created a “mobile armor” of the smartphones taped in plastic bags around his entire body. The hidden cargo—both iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s models—are estimated to be worth over 300,000 yuan (US$49,000). The newest iPhone model sells for almost $1,000 in mainland China but can be purchased for $820 in Hong Kong.

This is a guest post by Motohiro Tsuchiya, a professor at Keio University, and a visiting scholar at the East-West Center. Japan has watched the developing story of the cyber attacks against Sony Pictures Entertainment with great interest and a high degree of shock. While the company is American, Sony has Japanese origins and many Japanese citizens view the hack as if it happened to a Japanese company. The attack is a reminder of the hack of Sony’s PlayStation Network in the spring of 2011, but its impact can be most accurately compared to the cyber incident that affected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Japan’s biggest military contractor, in late 2011. That breach led to the large-scale theft of high-tech military information. Since the MHI case, many Japanese companies have become sensitized to the possible fallout of cyberattacks, particularly as nation states have begun to target private companies. This rarely happened in the Cold War era, but now seems a defining characteristic of cyberconflict. Many Japanese companies and government ministries have been victimized in various ways and some individuals have been mistakenly arrested due to faulty attribution. While this offers little comfort to Sony, it may be better for regional stability if the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) becomes more reliant on cyber tools instead of kinetic attacks to promote its interests. Despite their harsh rhetoric, the DPRK leadership tends to be cautious in calculating the impact of their actions when they attack or criticize foreign countries. Launching a kinetic attack is much riskier and much more likely to result in severe repercussions. The plausible deniability of cyberattacks and the use of proxies is an ideal alternative for Pyongyang. In some cultures, particularly in the DPRK and China, information used to criticize or make fun of political leaders can be regarded as an especially threatening attack against authority and regime stability. Beijing, Pyongyang, and others consider criticism and satire as "information attacks" and often use the term interchangeably with "cyberattacks" when the information attacks are conveyed online. Through this lens, it is somewhat understandable that the DPRK used cyberattacks to protest a movie, the central plot of which is the assassination of Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader. The plots of Hollywood movies often revolve around the attempted assassination of American presidents, but it is quite rare for a movie to actually show the killing of a another country’s sitting or former president. There seems little doubt that U.S. citizens would criticize a DPRK made film depicting the killing of President Obama, even if the movie would be protected as free speech in the United States. Sony could have been more sensitive to the potential North Korean reaction, but it certainly does not justify the use of cyberattacks to disrupt the release of a movie. How will Japan react? Even before the Sony hack became public, the Japanese Parliament was taking steps to reinforce cybersecurity. The National Diet passed the "Cybersecurity Basic Law" in November 2014. In the Japanese system, a basic law usually sets the country’s long-term strategic goal in a certain policy area. By passing the Cybersecurity Basic Law, the National Information Security Council acquired more authorities and strengthened its legal basis to oversee cybersecurity issues in Japan. The former Information Security Policy Council, which set cybersecurity policies across government and reported to Japan’s chief bureaucrat, was renamed the Cybersecurity Strategic Headquarters, and now cooperates closely with the new Japanese National Security Council, chaired by the Japanese prime minister. The headquarters’ mandate is broad, covering the setting of Japan’s strategic goals for cyberspace, protecting critical infrastructure, raising public awareness, research and development, and information sharing. There is an international component of the Cybersecurity Basic Law. Article 23 requires Japan to contribute to international arrangements that improve its cybersecurity. Japan has held a series of cybersecurity meetings with Association of Southeast Asian Nations and held its first meeting with the European Union in October 2014. The Sony hack came at a timely moment and will test Japan’s new responsibilities. However, taking a hard line attitude towards the DPRK may complicate the ongoing bilateral challenges between Japan and the DPRK, including the discussion about the abduction of Japanese citizens. This, however, may not be how it plays out. The DPRK has traditionally sought to improve relations with Japan when tensions rise with the United States, with the hope that Japan can insulate North Korea from U.S. pressure. The United States and Japan will need to work closely to maintain a delicate balance and to make sure Pyongyang does not open up space between their positions. As Tokyo looks to host the Olympic Games in 2020, organizers will need to be mindful of the impact that DPRK cyberattacks could have. Strengthening U.S.-Japanese cooperation in this area will not only provide a united front against the DRPK in the short term, but also seek to prepare for any contingencies that might occur during the Tokyo olympics.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, Ariella Rotenberg, and Sharone Tobias look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Pakistan engulfed in anger and grief after the Taliban kills 132 schoolchildren and sixteen teachers. Members of the Pakistani Taliban attacked a military school in Peshawar, killing 132 schoolchildren and 16 teachers, many of them shot at point-blank range and some burned alive. The Taliban claimed that the attack was to avenge Pakistani military operations in the northwest Taliban haven of North Waziristan. Though the school that was attacked was officially a military school, the victims included children of both military members and civilians. The Pakistani military offensive in North Waziristan has been underway since June, and the military redoubled its efforts and killed sixty-two militants in the region after the school attack. Additional militants were killed in a series of offenses in the Khyber tribal region. A Taliban spokesperson promised more attacks on military schools throughout Pakistan. 2. Armed siege of Sydney café leaves two hostages and gunman dead. Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh, stormed a café in central Sydney on Monday, forcing his hostages to display an Islamic flag. The end of the sixteen-hour crisis, though unclear, appeared to occur when Monis fired on his hostages, prompting the New South Wales police force to storm the café and kill him. Monis was known to the police—he was free on bail in two separate criminal cases—and was also wanted by the Iranian government for committing fraud. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has since ordered a sweeping government review of the siege and the events leading up to it, noting that the ordeal may have been preventable. 3. FBI blames North Korea for Sony cyberattack; The Interview is cancelled. On Friday, the FBI formally accused North Korea of the cyberattack on Sony and expressed deep concern over its “destructive nature.” The White House, meanwhile, categorized the attack against Sony as a “serious national security matter.” U.S. President Barack Obama also addressed the matter in a news conference on Friday, calling Sony’s decision to pull The Interview “a mistake.” The administration is considering a proportional retaliatory response to the attack, but the nature of the response is not yet clear as North Korea is already under a slew of economic sanctions for its nuclear program. 4. Abe re-elected in Japan’s snap election. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won another four years in office, and the ruling coalition, composed of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito party, will continue to govern Japan with a two-thirds majority in the Lower House of Parliament. With opposition parties in disarray, it was not a surprise that the government handily won the snap election, which was an attempt by Abe to gain renewed momentum for his policy priorities, in particular his economic reform plan (“Abenomics”). Not all are persuaded by the strength of the win, however, as voter turnout was at a postwar low, and one-fourth of the seats remain in opposition hands. 5. U.S. and Japan set new laws on renewable energy products and production. The U.S. Department of Commerce increased tariffs on imports of solar panels from China and solar cells from both Taiwan and China, closing a loophole that allowed Chinese companies to avoid tariffs by using photovoltaic cells made in Taiwan. Chinese manufacturers also benefited from unfair subsidies from the Chinese government, which enabled the sale of these products below manufacturing cost.  In other renewable energy news, Japan’s trade ministry announced they would set stricter rules for production and sales of renewable energy, particularly for solar-produced electricity, to help ensure a stable energy supply. Immediately following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Japanese renewable energy incentive program offered some of the highest rates for solar-produced electricity in the world, creating a flurry of interest in renewable energy applications. But the supply of energy is as yet unstable and applications to connect to the power grid have far exceeded the utilities’ acceptable capacity to take the unstable renewable energy supplies. Bonus: Responding to potato shortage, McDonald’s in Japan trims its fry portions. While stateside fast food portion control is of increasing interest because of public health concerns, the Japanese french fry downsize stems from a potato shortage. Japan imports is the largest Asian market for French fries from the United States, but a labor dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and U.S. dockworkers has delayed shipments of frozen spuds. McDonald’s in Japan has tried to compensate for the shortage by flying in potatoes from the U.S. East Coast. The shortage, perhaps, could finally put a muzzle on Japanese students’ taste for french fry parties.