"On the anniversary of the 1931 Japanese invasion of China,
tensions between the world's second and third largest economies are escalating.
The Associated Press reports that late Sunday,
China broke off high-level government contacts with Japan:
"over the extended detention of a fishing boat captain arrested near disputed islands.
The rare move pushed already tense relations to a new low,
and showed China's willingness to play hardball with its Asian rival
on issues of territorial integrity."
Did increasing supplies of money, fossil fuel and food,
contribute to Earth’s human population rising
from 1.6 billion at the beginning of the 20th century,
to more than 6.8 billion in a little more than 100 years?
The latest straw on the camel's back was the detention of a Chinese fishing boat and its captain,
after it hit two Japanese Coast Guard boats in the East China Sea,
a territory claimed by both countries...
..."the captain's detention ...has inflamed ever-present anti-Japanese sentiment in China."
..."Beijing has suspended ministerial and provincial-level contacts,
halted talks on aviation issues and postponed a meeting to discuss coal."..."
Tyler Durden
"If Japan acts willfully, making mistake after mistake, China will take strong countermeasures, and all the consequences will be borne by the Japanese side," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement.
What happens when many without food, water and energy
want the few who have to share?
Takeshi Matsunaga, a spokesman for Japan's Foreign Ministry, said the reported measures were unilateral.
"We ask China to respond calmly so as not to escalate the problem further," he said.
If mold continues to multiply after eating half a piece of cheese
what happens when demand exceeds supply?
The move raises questions about cooperation between China and Japan at international forums such as this week's summit in New York on United Nations goals to fight poverty, which Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan are attending.
...China's decision to cut high-level contacts appears to reflect a worry about losing face in front of the Chinese public which might trigger a nationalistic backlash against the government if it appears weak or unable to protect the country's sovereignty.
Have the powerful created symbols for the powerless to destroy
to turn tyranny into nationalism?
If the Russians invaded Chechnya at the beginning of the Olympics,
could China make a move on Japan
in the concurrent or in the immediate aftermath of a severe weather event,
like a hurricane/typhoon?
...the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan has plunged because of the dispute, ...A Beijing-based food company announced it would cancel a planned group tour to Japan for 10,000 people to reward employees, their families and business partners.
Beijing made the announcements shortly after a Japanese court approved a 10-day extension of captain Zhan Qixiong's detention."
Associated Press
"...a direct result of this action will be the massive gobbling up of even more JGBs
in an attempt by the PBoC to once again streghten the yen,
as Central Bank warfare escalates,
forcing the Bank of Japan to intervene yet again in the FX market,
further angering Europe, whose currency has surged by over 10% in the past week,
and making life for investors on either side of the Atlantic and Pacific ever more unpredictable,
in a landscape in which the biggest marginal buyers (and sellers) of securities
are increasingly the central banks themselves.
The only winner out of this: the US Treasury department
which buys even more time to proceed with a failed Keynesian policy
of pereptually debt-funded, deficit creation."
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