Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Monday, August 28, 2023

Fukushima discharge worries Malaysians, Unknown human health, marine life and the environment concern many

Activists in Fukushima protest against discharge plan

Save the oceans: Ho Sin Leng, 13, adding her signature to the ‘Raise Your Voice, Stop the Discharge of Nuclear Wastewater into the Ocean’ mass petition event at the Nirvana Memorial Garden in Semenyih. — ART CHEN/The Star

Unknown impact on human health, marine life and the environment concern many

HULU LANGAT: As Japan began to release contaminated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean last Thursday, voices of concern among Malaysians are being heard.

A large number of them have shared their reservations about the scheduled discharge of 1.3 million tonnes of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant despite assurances of safety from the Japanese government and scientists including the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake in 2011 had triggered a tsunami that hit three reactors of the plant located about 250km north of Tokyo.Malaysians are worried about the effects the water release – to be conducted in phases over the next 30 years – would have on human health, marine life and the environment.

Among those who are strongly against Japan’s action is philanthropist Tan Sri David Kong Hon Kong, who is also Nirvana Asia Group founder and executive chairman.

He said the released radioactive substances could spread and “cast a long shadow over the entire world”.

“Since this is the first large-scale release of nuclear wastewater in the world, the extent of its harm is unknown, and no one can guarantee its safety,” he said.

He also questioned the long time frame needed for the wastewater release, saying that it showed there were concerns and uncertainties about its possible effects on humanity.

Kong was present at the launch of the “Raise Your Voice, Stop the Discharge of Nuclear Wastewater into the Ocean” mass petition event held at the Nirvana Memorial Garden in Semenyih, Selangor, yesterday.

It was held concurrently with the company’s annual Zhong Yuan enlightenment ceremony, an event to remember the ancestors, advocate filial piety and pay tribute to the departed.

Kong said the petition has so far received tens of thousands of signatures from Malaysians spread across three huge banners.

He called on more Malaysian companies and individuals to speak out against the matter.

“Being in business does not mean we don’t care. We have our social responsibilities to fulfil. Furthermore, the world is still grappling with the hardship and disarray caused by the pandemic.

“This time, everyone should unequivocally protest the release of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean to prevent the world from another crisis,” he said.

Kong added that Japan’s action runs contrary to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles that are growing in importance and prominence in the country and the rest of the world.

“I call upon everyone and all corporations to participate in this and petition the Japanese government to stop the wastewater release,” he said.

Kong said more petition zones will be put up by his company at its upcoming enlightenment ceremonies at other locations.

They include Nirvana Center Kuala Lumpur on Sept 2 and 3, Nirvana Memorial Park in Klang on Sept 3 and in Shah Alam on Sept 9 and 10.Kong said all the signatures collected will be handed over to the Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

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Is Fukushima nuclear-contaminated wastewater release safe? What the science says

A close up of a staff member wearing a hard hat and face mask measuring the radiation levels of storage tanks

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Tuesday, May 16, 2023

China's rising clout in the spotlight

TOKYO: The weekend gathering of finance chiefs from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies leaves signs that the world’s second-largest economy will loom large at this week’s summit in Hiroshima.

Efforts to grapple with China’s growing global presence were evident at the three-day G7 finance chiefs’ gathering in Niigata, Japan, during which they held their first outreach in 14 years, aimed at winning over emerging nations.

The meeting with Brazil, the Comoros, India, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea primarily tackled issues such as debt and high-level infrastructure investment, in a tacit counter to China’s Belt and Road initiative, according to analysts.

“What’s going on at the G7 is reflecting changes in global order following the loss of the US dominance,” said Masamichi Adachi, economist at UBS Securities.

“No one is being able to draw up a grand design with shifting of power.”

G7 host Japan persuaded its G7 counterparts to launch a new programme by the end of 2023 to diversify supply chains for strategically important goods away from China.

The G7 comprises the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Germany and Canada. But the finance chiefs’ closing communique did not mention a US-proposed idea for narrow restrictions on investment to China, a potential rift among the grouping on how far they should go in pressuring Beijing.

A Japanese finance ministry official at the gathering, who declined to be named because of he sensitivity of the matter, said the idea was discussed in Niigata, but declined to elaborate.

China is among the biggest markets for most G7 countries, particularly for export-reliant economies such as Japan and Germany.

China-bound exports account for 22% of Japan’s overall shipments. Japan and the United States want to try to win over countries, including those in the Global South, with promises of foreign direct investment and aid, analysts said. — Reuters

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Japan, as G7 presidency, urged not be accomplice, accessory to economic coercion: FM

Japan, which holds the G7 presidency this year, is urged not to be an accomplice and accessory to economic coercion, and G7 countries should demand that the US stop splitting the world into two markets, which is the primary threat to the global economy, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on Monday.

China's rising clout spotlighted at finance chief meetings ...

As Liz Truss visits Taiwan island, London has had a 'bad teammate': Global Times editorial

Through her embarrassing political performance, Truss has shown many British people that being tough against China and provoking China not only did not help solve internal problems in the UK, but also further increased the difficulty of solving them.

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Saturday, January 28, 2023

U.S. wants others to fight war with China, says ex-diplomat

THE U.S. WANTS WAR WITH CHINA – but with other people doing the fighting, a whistleblowing Australian diplomat revealed this week.

“The United States is NOT preparing to go to war against China: the United States is preparing Australia to go to war against China,” said John Lander, a former senior ambassador.

He believes China has no intention of invading the southern continent. But a different narrative was foremost in people’s minds because the Americans have a tight grip on Australian government and media, he argued.

BUT AUSTRALIA IS BEING INVADED

Yet there was a hidden irony that people weren’t seeing.

These IS a country making a massive push into Australia: that country was the United States, not China. Australia’s citizens were “unaware or uncaring that almost every major Australian company across resources, food, retail, mass media, entertainment, banking and finance sectors, has majority American ownership,” Lander said.

John Lander

“Australians fret about China buying up the country but American investment is ten times the size,” he added.

Comments by Lander, one of the country’s top China experts, received wide attention from citizens in Asia and Australia – but virtually no coverage from the media. The ambassador is retired and unafraid to speak openly.

TRAINED BY CIA

Citizens of his country, Lander said, were continually warned about China through reports in the media from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI. But it was really “the American Subversive Propaganda Institute”, Lander said. “It has lobbyists from American arms manufacturers on the board, which is headed by an operative trained by the CIA.” ASPI has taken a leading role in spreading the Chinese “concentration camps” story, along with Radio Free Asia, which presents itself as an Asian journalism group, but is actually a CIA-founded operation based in Washington DC.

MASSIVE ARMS SPENDING

The former ambassador’s comments, made in an Salon interview on Sunday, January 22, 2023, are in line with those of other whistleblowers who note that the United States has been working to militarize Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, while western media demonizes China. These two processes together are triggering massive spending on arms in the region, and creating the conditions for war—which would further boost the arms industries in the west.

Lander said that the eight nuclear-powered submarines Australia had been prodded to buy from America for defence were actually for “hunter killer operations in the Taiwan strait”.

LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY

John Lander was Australia’s Director of the China Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs on three separate occasions, and personally negotiated Consular relations between Australia and China, having worked as a bridge between the two nations for the best part of 30 years.

Lander said he had become increasingly alarmed at the spreading of the notion that war against China is “inevitable”.

While mainstream commentators in Australia took an anti-China stance and pushed the line that that militarization “enhances Australian sovereignty”, the truth was that “these arrangements arguably accede Australian sovereignty to America”, he said.