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Coligny wrote:Damn, those idiots even attack Nissan now, like if the French had anything to do with this clusterfuck...
Coligny wrote:Unpossible... we ran out of red paint... and it's back ordered on ebay...
Gemba: U.S.-Japan security treaty covers disputed isles
Politics Sep. 18, 2012 - 06:02AM JST ( 18 )
TOKYO —
Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said on Monday Tokyo and Washington agree that disputed East China Sea islets claimed by Japan and China are covered by the Japan-U.S. security treaty.
“I did not bring up the topic today, but it is mutually understood between Japan and the United States that (the islands) are covered by the treaty,” Gemba told reporters after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Tokyo.
The comments come amid mounting tension between Beijing and Tokyo over the islands dispute which triggered protests in dozens of Chinese cities over the weekend.
“It is very regrettable that anti-Japan demonstrations are occurring on a scale that has not been seen before, and that some among the protesters get violent, causing Japan-affiliated companies substantial damage. I would like to ask again the Chinese government take appropriate steps. I would like to renew our demand that law and order be observed,” Gemba said.
“The important thing in relations between Japan and China is to avoid misunderstanding and misjudgement,” he added.
Japan embassy, businesses shut as more protests erupt in China
By Ben Blanchard and Antoni Slodkowski
National Sep. 18, 2012 - 03:35PM JST ( 89 )
Japan embassy, businesses shut as more protests erupt in China Police officers stop anti-Japan protesters marching through the street toward the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai on Tuesday. AP
BEIJING/TOKYO —
Anti-Japan protests reignited across China on Tuesday, forcing Japanese firms in the country to suspend operations, as a crisis over a territorial dispute escalated on the anniversary of Japan’s pre-war invasion of its giant neighbor.
Relations between Asia’s two biggest economies faltered badly on the anniversary, with emotions running high on the streets.
The dispute over the uninhabited group of islands in the East China Sea—known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China—led to a day of anti-Japan protests which Japanese expatriates fear could peak later on Tuesday.
Japanese businesses shut hundreds of stores and plants across China and Japan’s embassy in Beijing again came under siege by protesters hurling water bottles, waving Chinese flags, and chanting anti-Japan slogans evoking war-time enmity.
“Wipe out all Japanese dogs,” read one banner held aloft by one of thousands of protesters marching on the embassy, which was ringed by riot police standing six rows deep. Japan’s foreign ministry said some embassy windows had been smashed.
Rowdy protests, fueled by Chinese nationalism, sprang up in other major cities including Shanghai, raising the risk they could get out of hand and backfire on Beijing, which has implied tacit approval to them through state media. One Hong Kong newspaper said some protesters in southern Shenzhen had been detained for calling for democracy and human rights.
Well-known Japanese firms have been targeted by protesters, with car makers Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co halting some operations after attacks on their outlets.
Other Japanese companies—from Mazda and Mitsubishi Motors to Panasonic and Fast Retailing—also shuttered plants and stores in China, sending Japanese share prices falling and prompting a warning from credit rating agency Fitch that the situation could hurt some auto and tech firms’ creditworthiness.
Hitachi Construction Machinery recalled 25 Japanese workers back to Japan because of the unrest.
Mutsuko Takebayashi, a Japanese expatriate housewife living in Shanghai, said she planned to fly home with her family.
“It’s possible that Japanese companies will start evacuating families back home and if that happens it’ll be too late to book tickets. That’s why I’m going back today,” she said.
Japanese restaurants, a common target of protesters, barred their doors while many Japanese expatriates stayed home, afraid that Tuesday’s anniversary of Japan’s 1931 occupation of parts of mainland China could lead to outbreaks of violence.
Tuesday’s brief landing by two Japanese nationals on one of the disputed islands, reported by Japan’s coast guard, has raised fears of a direct clash in an area being patrolled by ships from both nations.
The long-standing territorial dispute erupted last week when the Japanese government decided to nationalize some of the islands, buying them from a private Japanese owner.
Political analysts say China also upped the stakes last week when it announced precise boundaries for waters it claims around the islands, a move sure to raise pressure on Beijing to act when it accuses Japanese vessels of violating those boundaries.
The dispute has sent China-exposed Japanese stocks down heavily on the Tokyo stock market, raising concerns about any wider impact on economic and trade ties between the two countries. Platinum prices also fell, partly on the disruption to Japanese car plants in China, traders said. The precious metal is used as an auto catalyst.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, and Japan, the third-largest, have total two-way trade of around $345 billion.
There is no talk of Japanese firms withdrawing investment from China but some experts believe anti-Japan sentiment could prompt firms to rethink China investments in the longer term.
“Withdrawal is impossible but the cost of doing business in China clearly has become much higher so that cost calculation should affect (decisions),” said Yoshihide Soeya, director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at Keio University in Tokyo.
Mazda Motor Corp has temporarily halted production at its Nanjing factory, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp said it would also halt operations at one of its China factories on Tuesday. Both have joint ventures in China. Yamaha Motor Co also said it was suspending operations at four plants in China.
Toyota and Honda said arsonists had badly damaged their stores in the eastern port city of Qingdao at the weekend, prompting Toyota to halt operations at some factories in China.
Electronics group Panasonic Corp said it was closing three China factories after two were attacked by mobs and a third, in southeastern Zhuhai, was sabotaged. Japan’s Omron Corp halted its automotive parts plant in Guangzhou, southern China, as a precaution.
Japanese supermarket operator Aeon closed all but five of its 35 stores in China on Tuesday, while clothing retailer Fast Retailing shut about a quarter of its 145 Uniqlo stores in mainland China for the day. Building machinery maker Komatsu halted three plants in Shandong province.
Tuesday marks the Sept 18, 1931 “Mukden Incident” in which Japanese soldiers blew up a railway in Manchuria as a pretext to take control of the entire northeastern region.
Outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing, more than a thousand protesters faced off against riot police six rows deep.
Some threw eggs and plastic bottles at the building and a few scuffles broke out with officers at the gate of the compound.
“Today is September 18, the anniversary of when Japan invaded China’s northern area, it is a good time to show them that we are prepared to fight,” said Fan Li, 31, wearing a T-shirt reading: “Diaoyu Islands are Chinese”.
“We want to show the Japanese that we are not afraid to stand up to them.”
Many protesters carried banners calling for boycotts of Japanese goods, and others sang the national anthem.
The roads leading up the embassy were closed off and a helicopter flew overhead monitoring the protest.
In the commercial hub of Shanghai hundreds of riot police blocked off roads leading to the Japanese consulate, while hundreds of protesters rallied outside the building, carrying flags, banners and images of Mao.
“I worship Mao. If we still had Mao, then we would just go fight Japan,” said Pu Lingkuang, 34, holding up a large portrait.
In the southern city of Shenzhen thousands gathered at Zhongxin Square in front of city government offices, which saw violent protests on Saturday with protesters smashing store windows and police firing tear gas into the crowds.
“Let’s go China,” they shouted, also waving flags and Mao portraits.
pheyton wrote:futuristic weapons, including a Gatling gun
IparryU wrote:so was fucking Japan's economy part of the plan to buy these rocks?
I sure hope America does not get dragged into this anytime soon... let the Japanese get a taste of the shit stew they made before anyone else has to eat it.
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:These riots could turn out to be a boon for the Japanese economy.
Those stupid peasants stirred up into destroying everything Japanese will calm down again in a couple of weeks when authorities crack down as they realize their shit-stirring could come home to roost.
Japanese companies may then have to replace everything those imbecilic peons have destroyed, or bring home what they can no longer trust to be made properly in a cuntry where thought is even more medieval than it is here.
Naive, perhaps, but not impossible.
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:As catone pointed out to me once, nationalism = East Asian religion.
Nice try substituting Ryukyu for Okinawa wrote:More official pressure was also applied. A well-connected government research institute, the Council for National Security Policy Studies, led by a retired general of the government’s paramilitary force, said Japan should also give up the Ryukyu island chain. That chain stretches from southern Japan to Taiwan, and many Chinese see it as encircling China.
cstaylor wrote:From the NYTNice try substituting Ryukyu for Okinawa wrote:More official pressure was also applied. A well-connected government research institute, the Council for National Security Policy Studies, led by a retired general of the government’s paramilitary force, said Japan should also give up the Ryukyu island chain. That chain stretches from southern Japan to Taiwan, and many Chinese see it as encircling China.
Coligny wrote:Surprisingly got an answer from Auto Union in Krautistan:
wiki wrote:The DS was the first mass production car with front power disc brakes. It also featured hydropneumatic suspension including an automatic leveling system and variable ground clearance, power steering and a semi-automatic transmission (the transmission required no clutch pedal, but gears still had to be shifted by hand ), though the shift lever controlled a powered hydraulic shift mechanism in place of a mechanical linkage, and a fibreglass roof which reduced weight transfer.Inboard front brakes (as well as independent suspension) reduced unsprung weight. Different front and rear track widths and tyre sizes reduced the understeer typical of front-engined and front-wheel drive cars
The Japanese call them the Senkaku Islands, the Chinese refer to them as Diaoyu. Let me suggest a more appropriate name: Goat Islands.
Goats are all you will find on the cluster of uninhabited rocks over which the Japanese and Chinese seem ready to go to war. Diplomats in Tokyo and Beijing, meanwhile, are blaming one another over a mushrooming international crisis that has U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta worried about a military “blowup,” the last thing the world needs right now.
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