Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Asia
Newsline: Indian embassy questions rule of law in China
The Yiwu kidnapping controversy took a new turn when the Indian embassy wrote a strong rejoinder to an article by a Chinese professor criticizing its advisory to Indians visiting China. The state-run paper, Global Times, published an article by a law professor which justified the kidnapping and beating of three Indian traders over business disputes. “It’s understandable that the sellers may adopt some radical actions to demand payment, given the potential damage to their business,” the article said. “Those Indian merchants who deliberately don’t pay for their goods betray the trust of their Yiwu counterparts and damage the interests of the sellers,” it said. In the letter to Global Times, the Indian government has taken the rare step of publicly questioning the rule of law in China. “The professor from Yiwu thinks that ‘radical actions’ are a solution to trade disputes. Others like us expect, perhaps optimistically, the rule of law,” the embassy letter said. It further said such attitude makes the case for issuing travel advisories for Indians “even more compelling”. This is the first time that the Indian embassy has made public a letter to a Chinese newspaper and uploaded it on its website.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Irate-India-questions-rule-of-law-in-China/articleshow/13654883.cms
Newsline: US Supreme Court rejects appeal from former embassy hostages who wanted to sue Iran
The Supreme Court has declined to revive a lawsuit against Iran filed by Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran more than 30 years ago. The justices on Tuesday did not comment in letting stand lower court decisions dismissing the $6.6 billion class-action lawsuit. The lower courts found the agreement to release the hostages, known as the Algiers Accords, precluded lawsuits against Iran. The suit argued that legislation in 2008 gave the hostages the right to sue. Fifty-two American diplomats and military officials were held captive for more than a year by a group of Islamist students who supported the Iranian revolution. The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-former-embassy-hostages-who-wanted-to-sue-iran/2012/05/29/gJQAtxLtyU_story.html
Newsline: China diplomat flees Japan over spy claims
A diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo has fled Japan amid claims he was wanted for questioning over possible spying, local media reported Tuesday. The 45-year-old first secretary at the embassy, a former member of Beijing’s intelligence service, refused to surrender to police and left the country, Kyodo News said, quoting law enforcement sources. Japanese police believe the unidentified man had been receiving “advisory” fees from Japanese companies in return for information, which is prohibited by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. They also think he had been in regular contact with Japanese lawmakers.
http://www.wogx.com/story/18641714/china-diplomat-flees-japan-over-spy-claims
Newsline: US journalist denies receiving money from Pakistani Embassy
David Frum, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor, who has allegedly been accused of receiving secret funds from the Pakistan Embassy, has strongly denied the charge in a column he wrote on CNN.com. “On Wednesday, Google Alerts brought me a piece of startling news: A lawyer speaking to a tribunal of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had accused me of acting as a paid agent of the government of Pakistan. No, seriously, that’s what the man said.” Frum was responding to a reported statement of prominent SC lawyer Akram Sheikh who, it was reported, had ‘claimed in a statement that Pakistani Embassy provided funds to Harlan Ullman and David Frum for damage control after the memo controversy’. In his response Frum wrote on CNN.com he was so taken aback by the claim that he telephoned Sheikh to ask whether it was true. “We had a short but intense exchange.” He said given that charges against him have gained a hearing inside Pakistan, some kind of answer seems due. Frum wrote: “Where is the fake evidence? The forged check, the bogus wire transfer, the suborned courier? Money always leaves a record.”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-111126-David-Frum-denies-receiving-money-from-Pak-Embassy
Newsline: U.S. Embassy officials among the targets of alleged Iran-linked assassination plots in Azerbaijan
In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list. The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car bomb, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families. Both strands could be traced back to the same place, the officials were told: Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor, Iran. The threat, many details of which were never made public, appeared to recede after Azerbaijani authorities rounded up nearly two dozen people in waves of arrests early this year. Precisely who ordered the hits, and why, was never conclusively determined. But U.S. and Middle Eastern officials now see the attempts as part of a broader campaign by Iran-linked operatives to kill foreign diplomats in at least seven countries over a span of 13 months. The targets have included two Saudi officials, a half-dozen Israelis and — in the Azerbaijan case — several Americans, the officials say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-officials-among-the-targets-of-iran-linked-assassination-plots/2012/05/27/gJQAHlAOvU_story.html
Newsline: Russian diplomat dies in fall in Japan
A Russian diplomat in Japan has died after falling down a cliff while playing volleyball. The Russian embassy in Japan said Vladimir Pushkov, a consul-general aged fifty-five, fell while chasing a ball in the town of Agano in Niigata prefecture. He died of head injuries. Japanese police said he was on a camping holiday with colleagues.
http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20120527/news_20120527_56_843359.htm
Newsline: Lady Gaga’s Concert in Indonesia Cancelled After Protests Outside US Embassy
Promoters for American pop singer Lady Gaga said Sunday that her June 3 show in Indonesia has been cancelled after Islamic hard-liners threatened violence if she performs. Concert promotion lawyer Minola Sebayang said that the cancellation was not only about Lady Gaga’s security, but the safety of those who would be watching her. The Islamic Defender’s Front, or FPI, had threatened to deploy 30,000 members to physically prevent Lady Gaga from getting off the plane. More than 52,000 tickets were purchased in advance, making the sold-out show her biggest in Asia.
http://www.voanews.com/content/lady_gagas_indonesia_concert_cancelled/1105814.html
Newsline: Iranians protester outside German Embassy
Iran’s official news agency said protesters in front of the German Embassy in Tehran were seeking return of an Iranian-born singer who went into hiding after receiving death threats. Singer Shahin Najafi allegedly insulted a Shiite Muslim saint. The protesters also demanded that Germany apologize for hosting the singer, who has lived in Germany since 2005. They called the singer an apostate. Najafi first contacted German police about the threats May 8. A day later, an anonymous person posting on a Persian-language website put a $100,000 price on his head.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765578611/Iranian-protesters-seek-return-of-local-singer-hiding-in-Germany.html
Consular affairs: Iranian-Canadians cry foul at protest over visa rules
Immigration minister Jason Kenney has promised a town hall meeting in Richmond Hill this summer to discuss concerns among Iranian-Canadians over the closure of the embassy’s visa section in Tehran. Iranian-Canadians say the recent closure is hurting their families and not the intended target, the Iranian regime. Mr. Kenney was taking part in a Conservative party dinner with Richmond Hill MP Costas Menagakis while members of the Iranian community quietly demonstrated outside, waving flags and placards reading “Closure of the visa section is hurting 120,000 Iranian-Canadians” and “Punish the government, not the people of Iran”. The ex-pats are unhappy with the decision announced last month to close the visa section at Canada’s embassy in the Iranian capital and transfer services to the Canadian embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The move affects the processing of temporary resident applications. Permanent resident services were transferred to Ankara several months ago. Demonstrators said the decision, made without consulting the community, puts undue pressure on Canadian-Iranian families who look to Canada as a safe haven.
http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/1362196–iranian-canadians-cry-foul-at-protest-over-visa-rules
Consular affairs: US clampdown on visas for teachers upsets China
A U.S. clampdown on visas for instructors at China’s flagship cultural program overseas has incensed Beijing, with state media pouncing on it as an attempt by Washington to frustrate Chinese global ambitions. A U.S. directive last week said many Chinese instructors had the wrong kind of visa, though it appeared largely resolved by Thursday. The U.S. State Department expressed regret over how the matter was handled and said it was working on a way for teachers to update their status without returning home. But the commotion it set off has underlined China’s sensitivity about the more than 300 Confucius Institutes it has opened globally in less than a decade as a way of spreading its influence abroad. They primarily give language instruction, but also engage in cultural exchanges and are set up at universities overseas, where they have drawn concerns that they are propaganda machines aimed at stifling academic criticism of China’s Communist Party. The State Department announced May 17 that many teachers at Confucius Institutes on U.S. university campuses would have to switch their visas, because they were teaching kindergarten through 12th grade while holding visas for university-level instructors. There were fears hundreds of them would have to return home, disrupting more than 80 U.S.-based institutes. Chinese state media reacted swiftly, calling the restrictions an anti-Chinese witchhunt meant to distract Americans from a bleak economic picture in a presidential election year. “This absurd measure reflects illogical thinking and an immature mentality,” said an editorial by state-run People’s Daily. “Finding scapegoats, witch hunting and shifting focuses are not the right ways to do things.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry said earlier in the week that the government was in emergency consultations with the U.S. over the issue. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the agency was working on ways for the teachers to update their visas while remaining in the U.S. She said Friday that the original directive issued by the U.S. on May 17 had been “sloppy and not complete” and a new directive issued Friday should clarify matters. China has set up 81 Confucius Institutions in collaboration with U.S. colleges since 2004. They are similar to cultural centers such as France’s Alliance Francaise and Germany’s Goethe-Institut, but differ in that they make no claim to be independent from their country’s government.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/us-clampdown-on-visas-for-teachers-upsets-china/article_fb24fa2d-500c-53ef-8247-82f2071012ee.html
