Protesters demonstrate in Tokyo against Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after he renewed his intention to amend the Pacifist Constitution, in Tokyo, on Sunday. [Photo/Agencies] Japan was expected to launch its amphibious marine brigade on Tuesday in a move interpreted by local media as an attempt to counter maritime advances from China. The rapid deployment brigade, affiliated to the Ground Self-Defense Force, will be based in Camp Ainoura in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture, and is supposed to defend Japan's southern outlying islands, according to the Asahi Shimbun. Chen Hongbin, researcher at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said the deployment is clearly targeted at China's marine sovereignty. Chen said Japan's recent military moves indicate that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe regards China as its imaginary enemy. Its national defense plan has been turned to a specific strategy targeting China, which will lead to deteriorating China-Japan relations and a dangerous situation in Northeast Asia's stability. Liu Jiangyong, professor of International Relations at Tsinghua University, said dispersing the China threat has become a tactic for the Japanese government to increase its military power. Abe is suffering falling trust because of the ongoing land-sale scandal, and Liu said that in order to gain public support for increasing military spending, the Abe administration is playing its old trick of establishing an overseas enemy. An opinion poll by the Nikkei Shimbun and TV Tokyo on March 23-25 showed that approval ratings of Abe's cabinet had slumped to 42 percent from 56 percent in February. Japan has decided to purchase 17 Ospreys from the US for the 2,100-strong new brigade to transport the marines to any potential island battlefield. The delivery of the aircraft is expected to begin in fiscal year 2018, which starts on April 1. The Japanese government officially decided to establish the rapid deployment brigade, modeled after the US Marine Corps, in late 2013 to bolster the GSDF's amphibious capability to defend the Nansei island chain located between the island of Kyushu and Taiwan. The developments come as Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is pushing to rewrite the country's pacifist Constitution. At its annual convention on Sunday, the LDP adopted a proposal to revise the Constitution in line with a plan floated last year by Abe, who is also the president of the LDP, to bolster the Self-Defense Forces. Abe proposed last May that the first two clauses of Article 9, which renounces the right to wage war and bans maintenance of a standing military, be kept intact but that a reference to the SDF be added to clarify its status. Let's stipulate the Self-Defense Forces and put an end to a controversy about violation of the Constitution, Abe said. On Sunday protesters in Tokyo called for stopping constitution revision and demanded Abe's resignation over a suspected cover-up in the cronyism scandal. wristbands canadacustom silicone bracelets canadarubber bracelets canadasilicone bracelets canadasilicone wristbands canadacustom wristbands canadacanadian wristbandswristbands canada
Xie Liang talks with residents in Alingchao village in Qahar Right Wing Middle Banner, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo provided to China Daily] When Xie Liang was preparing to return to his original post after finishing his one-year assignment as a poverty relief cadre in Alingchao village in Qahar Right Wing Middle Banner, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 57 villagers signed a petition requesting he stay. China has promised to eradicate poverty by 2020, and I wish I could stay till the last minute, said the 45-year-old Xie, now Party chief of the village, who residents say is key to Alingchao's economic development over the past three years. Xie was working at the Communist Party of China History Research Center in the region when he learned in March 2015, about the poverty relief mission in Alingchao - a village where half of the population worked outside and 62 out of 104 families left in the village were impoverished. He offered to take on the task. Xie arrived in the village in May of the same year. After carrying out research, Xie decided to boost the economy by developing collectively owned businesses. Developing businesses in the village could boost its economy and lift the villagers out of poverty, he said. But first, Xie had to win the trust of the local people. When he learned that some sick villagers would not go to a doctor for fear of racking up medical bills, Xie invited doctors to their homes and paid the bills himself. Xie set up a sheep farm and helped farmers sell directly to retailers to cut out middlemen. In 2015, the market price for lamb dropped dramatically and the villagers encountered poor sales. Xie went to supermarkets in Hohhot to promote sales. He even asked his friends and relatives to buy the villagers' lamb. Gradually, Xie won the villagers' trust and respect. Guo Yongzhi, an Alingchao resident, described Xie as a man who cares little about personal gain. Xie has told the villagers that now Alingchao is his home, he said. But just when the village's cooperative began to pick up, Xie's assignment in the village came to an end and it was time for him to return to Hohhot. The villagers signed a petition to the CPC History Research Center in Hohhot to ask if Xie could stay. It was agreed that Xie could stay to complete his unfinished projects if he also carried out part of his original role. On most Friday evenings when I finish work at Alingchao, I have to hurry back to Hohhot to carry out work for my other role. Weekends have become a rare thing for me, he said. Xie began to explore more ways to enrich the villagers. After more research, Xie used a poverty alleviation fund to buy black donkeys to further improve the cooperative's rate of return. He also set up a flour mill and a sesame oil mill. In three years, nearly half of Alingchao's poor families have been lifted out of poverty, with the average income rising from 2,600 yuan ($413) to 4,600 yuan a year. But Xie said his mission is unfinished. We will further develop the collective business in the village to benefit more and strive for the zero poverty goal set for 2020, he said.
