CONTENTS
1. PRC Coastal Missile Deployment
2. PRC-Japan Relations
3. PRC-DPRK Bridge Construction
4. PRC Falun Gong Arrests
5. Trilateral Coordination Oversight Group Meeting
6. Philippines-US Anti-terror War
7. Bush-Putin Nuclear Arms, NATO Discussion
II. Japan 1. Japanese New Security Legislation
2. Japan-RF Relations
I. United States
1. PRC Coastal Missile Deployment
The Washington Times, Bill Gertz (“CHINA ASSEMBLES MISSILES NEAR COAST FACING TAIWAN,” 04/02/02) reported that the PRC’s military is deploying more short-range ballistic missiles near the coast opposite Taiwan, as tensions in the region are increasing over growing US support for the island. US intelligence agencies tracked a shipment of some 20 CSS-7 short-range missiles to a missile base near the town of Yongan in Fujian province. The missiles were delivered in the past two weeks and were identified by US military intelligence, the officials said. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that the deployments are counter to the PRC’s announced policy of seeking a peaceful resolution of its dispute with Taiwan. “I don’t see that building up your missiles is part of a fundamental policy of peaceful resolution,” he said. U.S. intelligence agencies now estimate that the PRC has between 350 and 400 missiles deployed at several bases within firing range of Taiwan.
2. PRC-Japan Relations
Reuters (“CHINA’S LI PENG HOPES FOR CLOSER TIES WITH JAPAN,” Tokyo, 04/02/02) reported that the PRC’s top legislator, Li Peng, kicked off a week-long visit to Japan on Tuesday by expressing hopes for a warmer relationship between the two countries at a reception in central Tokyo. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and an audience of some 1,000 people were also present for the party to launch a cultural exchange program marking the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties. The current visit is one of several planned for this year, marking an improvement in relations after a series of disputes. Li’s tour was initially scheduled for last year, but was postponed after Japan allowed a visit by former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui.
3. PRC-DPRK Bridge Construction
The Associated Press (“CHINA AND NORTH KOREA AGREE TO CONSTRUCT NEW BRIDGE OVER HISTORIC RIVER,” Beijing, 04/02/02) reported that the PRC and the DPRK will build a new bridge over the Yalu river to join the sole span that now connects the two countries. PRC legislators made the proposal two years ago, but the DPRK gave its agreement only recently. The sides will pick a location together. The single Yalu bridge provides rail and vehicle links between the PRC city of Dandong and the DPRK’s Sinuiju.
4. PRC Falun Gong Arrests
Reuters (Jeremy Page, “CHINA NABS FALUN GONG MEMBERS FOR PROTESTING ON STATE TV,” Beijing, 04/02/02) reported that PRC police have arrested more than 20 members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement for hijacking a state television broadcast last month, state media and officials said on Tuesday. “There are around 20 of them now under arrest,” police in PRC’s northeastern city of Changchun stated. “Initial investigations have revealed that the case was an organized, premeditated crime,” the policed stated. “I think most of the accomplices will receive lenient punishment, like re-education through labor,” the Changchun police officer said, referring to the controversial Chinese practice of sending people to labor camps without trial. But the organizers would be charged with “using an evil cult to damage law enforcement,” a crime which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
5. Trilateral Coordination Oversight Group Meeting
Agence France-Presse (“US, SKOREA, JAPAN TO MEET ON NKOREA POLICY NEXT WEEK IN TOKYO,” 04/02/02) reported that senior officials from the US, Japan and South Korea are to meet next week to review their joint policy toward the DPRK, the US State Department said. The meeting in Tokyo of the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG) is set for April 9, just three days after the scheduled end of a visit to Pyongyang by ROK presidential envoy Lim Dong-wan, the department said. The US delegation to the talks will be led by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, James Kelly, deputy spokesman Philip Reeker told reporters. The meeting will be the first such gathering of the three allies since January, he said. “We’ll discuss with them the full range of DPRK-related issues, including their (North and South Korea’s) planned meetings, which we have supported and said are important,” Reeker said.
6. Philippines-US Anti-terror War
Agence France-Presse (“PHILIPPINES EXPECTS MORE US MILITARY ASSISTANCE,” Manila, 04/02/02) reported that the Philippines is expecting more US military aid in the Southeast Asian phase on the global war on terrorism now taking place in the south, officials said Tuesday. President Gloria Arroyo is to receive later Tuesday US senators Daniel Inouye and Ted Steven to brief them on the progress of joint US-Philippine military training on Mindanao island. Both are ranking members of the US Senate’s powerful Defense Appropriations Sub-committee which approves budgets for foreign military aid. National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government is expecting the senators to lobby for more US military aid to the Philippines. The US in November committed about 100 million US dollars in military assistance, but the Arroyo government expects “succeeding programs” to be approved by the US Congress. “They (the US senators) will be playing a key role in the evaluation and approval of all the projects and programs of military assistance pertaining to the Philippines, and we’re not only talking about this year, but in the years to come,” Golez said.
7. Bush-Putin Nuclear Arms, NATO Discussion
The Associated Press (“BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS NUCLEAR ARMS,” Washington, 04/02/02) and Reuters (“BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS MIDEAST, NUCLEAR WEAPONS,” Washington, 04/02/02) reported that US President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed by phone on Tuesday the situation in the Middle East and US-Russian attempts to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles, the White House said. Sean McCormack, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the two leaders spoke for about 15 minutes in what he described as a “good phone call.” He said the two leaders agreed that discussions on a new NATO-Russian relationship were making progress. The aim is to create a forum in which Russia would sit as an equal partner with the defense alliance’s 19 nations and have a say in decision-making on specific security issues. The issue is to be discussed at a May 14-15 meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Reykjavik, Iceland.
II. Japan
1. Japanese New Security Legislation
The Asahi Shimbun (“NO BILL ON U.S. FORCES,” Tokyo, 04/01/02) reported that the Japanese government will not put forward a special measures bill detailing actions Japan-based US troops could take in event of a military attack on the archipelago, sources said. The government had initially planned to include the bill in a package with three other bills that deal with a possible attack on the nation. Government sources said officials have decided that activities of US troops could be allowed through revisions of Cabinet and ministerial orders as well as revisions in the implementation of existing laws.
2. Japan-RF Relations
Kyodo (“MORE FLEXIBLE PLAN NEEDED TO GET ISLANDS: HATOYAMA,” Kushiro, 04/01/02) reported that the Japanese government should be flexible in its dealings with the RF so that a territorial dispute over four Russian-held islands off the coast of Hokkaido can be settled in an ideal manner, according to the head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Yukio Hatoyama. “We must create circumstances in which the last island (of the four) can be returned to Japan at the earliest possible date, and we should work out a flexible scenario (to achieve this),” DPJ chief Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday at a press conference. Hatoyama’s remarks were taken to mean the government should not stick to the idea of seeking the return of all four islands at once.
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