>>NNA Breaking News Update 11/30/98<<
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NNA Breaking News Update 11/30/98
US News
1. Bias against Jews persists in nations
2. Blacks press Democrats to reward loyalty
3. Report: 40 Pct of Crime Guns Legal
World News
4. Ex-Uruguayan ruler denounces ``terrorist'' probe
5. French Prime Minister outlines measures to compensate Jews
6. Election registration confuses South Africans
7. Aussie Row over nazi slur
8. Australian far-right leader Pauline Hanson cements
grip on One Nation
9. Germany Charges Nazi War Crimes Suspect
10. IN ASIA, EVERYBODY PLAYS THE RACE CARD
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Bias against Jews persists in nations
Anti-Semitism rises, and objects of prejudice receive the blame
The death in October of the Rev. Edward Flannery, 87, robbed the
world of a major leader in the struggle against anti-Semitism.
Following the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, Flannery
was the American Roman Catholic bishops' first director of
Catholic-Jewish relations between 1967 and 1977.
In his landmark book, The Anguish of the Jews, Flannery documented
the persistence of virulent anti-Semitism within Christianity. He
warned that anti-Semitism, the ``world's oldest pathology,'' must
constantly be monitored and combated. Sadly, recent events have
confirmed the truth of Flannery's words.
A yearlong Swiss government survey reveals that anti-Semitism has
sharply increased in Switzerland in reaction to the revelations of
that country's World War II activities.
For decades Switzerland was perceived as a bastion of religious
liberty and political enlightenment. Mountains, watches, safe
banking and chocolate were the images the Swiss sought to transmit
to the world.
However, we now know that Swiss authorities in 1938 asked Nazi
Germany to stamp a ``J'' on the passports of Jews seeking asylum
in Switzerland. During World War II, Swiss banks accepted stolen
gold from the Nazis and laundered money for Hitler's war effort.
At the same time, many doomed European Jews opened Swiss bank
accounts, hoping the funds would be made available to their
survivors.
But for over 50 years the rightful heirs were denied their family
assets, and it required a massive public campaign to finally force
Swiss banks to pay $1.25 billion to Holocaust survivors.
The 1998 Swiss study reports the ``political crisis concerning
Switzerland's self-image'' and economic distress has caused an
upsurge in anti-Semitism. Doris Angst Yimaz, who helped prepare
the report, said: ``We Swiss are not special . . . even in
anti-Semitism.'' She lamented that today many Swiss believe
``the Jews'' were the villains and ``the Swiss were the victims''
during the Nazi period.
History is turned on its head, and when in doubt, blame ``the Jews.''
Vatican officials have announced plans to beatify Pius XII, who was
pope between 1939 and 1958. Aharon Lopez, Israel's ambassador to the
Vatican, urged that the effort to make a saint of Pius XII be delayed
for 50 years out of respect for the feelings of many Jews who say he
did not do enough to oppose the Holocaust.
Lopez said that even though ``the beatification of saints is the
absolute prerogative of the church . . . Holocaust survivors are
still with us (and) it would seem wiser to wait . . . until
sensitivities have been defused and historians have access to
all the records and can make a judgment (about Pius XII's actions
during World War II). This is the time to speak out while
(beatification) is still in process and not a fait accompli.''
But instead of responding to the substance of the ambassador's views,
the Rev. Peter Gumpel, the priest who directs the effort for
Pius XII's beatification, angrily replied: ``These attacks and
insults by some groups are counterproductive.'' The ambassador's
remarks were ``imprudent and provocative.'' And then, in an
all-too-familiar tactic, Gumpel ominously warned: ``I would not
be surprised if (Lopez's remarks and criticism of Pius XII) led
to a rise of anti-Semitic feeling.''
It is the oldest game in the world. Blame the protester for creating
the problem, and threaten Jews with ``a rise'' of anti-Semitism if
they do not remain quiet. Hopefully, Gumpel's barbed response does
not reflect the official Vatican position.
Then there is the case of Germany.
Public ceremonies in Berlin marking the 60th anniversary of
Kristallnacht -- the night in 1938 when German Nazis launched
wide attacks on Jewish properties -- clearly revealed how difficult
it is today for Germany to deal with its anti-Semitic past.
Newly elected German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder participated in
the commemoration along with Ignatz Bubis, president of the German
Jewish community. Schroder declared that Germany must ``look ahead
without forgetting what happened . . . the past cannot repeat
itself.''
But Bubis pointed said some German leaders have called the proposed
Berlin Holocaust memorial a ``nightmare.''
The new Schroder administration has expressed reservations about
the memorial and will put the plan to a vote in the German parliament
in 1999. And in a particularly disturbing statement, Michael Naumann,
Germany's cultural affairs minister, said a Holocaust memorial in
Berlin would likely be desecrated with neo-Nazi vandalism and
graffiti.
It seems incredible that Europe's most powerful country cannot
provide adequate security to protect a sacred memorial in the
heart of its capital.
Tragically, Flannery was right. Anti-Semitism remains the world's
oldest and most virulent pathology.
Rabbi Rudin is national interreligious affairs director of the
American Jewish Committee.
--
Blacks press Democrats to reward loyalty
Despite heavy support, African Americans have little leadership
role
Washington Post
MOBILE, Ala. -- When African Americans in Alabama went to the polls
this month, about 95 percent voted for Donald Siegelman, a white
Democrat, for governor.
So state Rep. Alvin Holmes thought it only fair that they be rewarded
after Siegelman ousted Republican incumbent Fob James Jr.
The ballots had barely been counted when Holmes, a black Democrat
from Montgomery, fired off a telegram to the incoming governor:
Siegelman, he wrote, should appoint two blacks to his transition
team, as well as appointing blacks to one-third of cabinet and
department head positions, and to one-third of the staff positions
in the governor's office.
Holmes' blunt letter stirred controversy among other African-American
officials, and Siegelman insisted his appointments would be based
on merit, not race.
But the episode highlighted a common refrain being heard from black
officials nationwide after the midterm elections: The Democratic
Party must reward its most loyal constituents with appointments,
as well as by addressing their policy concerns.
"This wasn't about just fighting for (President) Clinton, this was
about fighting for our agenda," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y.,
who led a massive black get-out-the-vote effort this year.
Race was a theme and underlying factor in many elections nationwide,
particularly in the South, and in Maryland and Illinois. A combination
of high black turnout and an unusually high percentage of the black
vote going to Democrats helped push party candidates over the top in
many crucial state and federal elections.
So it has not gone unnoticed among African Americans in Congress
that the GOP has more blacks in leadership positions -- Rep. J.C.
Watts, R-Okla., was just elected Republican Conference chairman --
than Democrats, who have none.
During their recent organizational meeting, Maryland Rep. Albert R.
Wynn, the only black member seeking a leadership position, finished
third in a three-way race for vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus.
And blacks caution that they are increasingly willing to vote
Republican when Democrats ignore their interests.
The White House has quietly acknowledged its debt for the support
African Americans gave Clinton and other Democrats this year.
Administration officials said they are meeting with black
congressional members and asking for lists of legislative
priorities.
Vice-President Gore plans several meetings with black lawmakers in
coming weeks. And Jesse Jackson pressed House Democratic leader
Richard Gephardt of Missouri for greater minority representation
in the congressional leadership.
Wynn and Rangel emphasized that while they will keep pushing for
black appointments, most of the legislation they want has cross-racial
appeal, including money to rebuild decaying schools and expand
empowerment zones.
"As they say, to the victor goes the spoils," Wynn said. "We were a
part of the team and will expect some of the things that are our
priorities to be included nationally."
Still, many blacks and whites in the Democratic Party agree it must
tread gingerly lest it alienate whites who believe it is already
too beholden to blacks.
That means much of the effort to reward black supporters will be
quiet, as opposed to public demands such as those by Holmes in
Alabama, where his open approach was criticized by some blacks.
--
Report: 40 Pct of Crime Guns Legal
NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly 40 percent of the handguns used to commit
crimes were purchased from federally licensed dealers within the
previous three years, The New York Times reported today.
The research, which could sharply influence lawsuits against the gun
industry, defies the long-held view that most guns used in crimes are
stolen, the newspaper said, citing new federal law enforcement data.
The data also contradicts the gun industry's argument that its
dealers are not the source of an illegal black market for weapons.
But gun industry spokesmen questioned the data, saying that the
relatively short length of time between the sale of a handgun and
its use during a crime is an inaccurate measure of whether a weapon
has been stolen.
The new data will be tested in January, when a federal suit brought
by the families of victims of gun violence against the weapon's
manufacturer begins in federal court in New York City.
The plaintiffs contend that gun makers jeopardize public safety by
flooding the market with their products without establishing necessary
controls to ensure criminals can't become easily armed.
Disclosure of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
data comes just days before the expiration of the Brady Law, which
requires a five-day waiting period before buying a handgun.
On Nov. 30 the Justice Department is to implement the National Instant
Criminal Background Check System. This system will give law
enforcement
officials access to a wider array of records than is now available
and will require background checks before customers can purchase
rifles, shotguns and firearm transfers at pawn shops.
--
World News
Ex-Uruguayan ruler denounces ``terrorist'' probe
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (Reuters) -- A former Uruguayan dictator said
today a global ``socialist terrorist organization'' was behind
inquiries into a kidnapping in 1976 during military rule in his
country, after a French lawyer sought an arrest warrant for him
in the case.
Gregorio Alvarez, Uruguay's military ruler from 1981 to 1985, said
he would be willing to testify in Europe to give evidence in the case
involving a French man who disappeared in neighboring Argentina in
1976.
French lawyer Sophie Thonon on Thursday said she had asked Parisian
authorities to issue an arrest warrant for Alvarez in connection
with the kidnapping and disappearance of French national Roger
Julien.
Thonon said Julien was persecuted by Uruguay's military before he
fled to Argentina in 1973.
Alvarez said in an interview published in Uruguayan daily El Pais
on Friday that he knew nothing about Julien's disappearance.
``(The matter is) a quest for vengeance by the old Marxist and
Socialist terrorist organization, which is now global,'' Alvarez
said in the interview.
He added that he would be glad to travel to give evidence and prove
his innocence.
``Why not? I would travel to France, Paris, London ... basically
wherever,'' he said.
Uruguay's dictatorship started in 1973, when democratically elected
president Juan Bordaberry started ruling with military backing. The
armed forces took full control in 1976 until democratic elections
were held in 1984, and the military turned power over to civilians
early the next year.
The lawyer accused Alvarez of being the brains behind Julien's
persecution even though at the time he was just the head of a
military division in the interior of Uruguay. He did not became
head of Uruguay's dictatorship until 1981.
The case is the latest in a spate of attempts to bring Latin
America's former dictators to justice, sparked by the arrest in
Britain of Chile's Augusto Pinochet on an extradition warrant
issued in Spain.
Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, ruled Wednesday that
Pinochet is not immune from prosecution as a former head of state.
--
French Prime Minister outlines measures to compensate Jews
PARIS (AP) - Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said Saturday that France
will create a centralized body to investigate restitution claims from
heirs and descendants of Jews whose property was confiscated during
World War II.
Jospin told Jewish leaders that the government would put an additional
$1.75 million to boost staff working on satisfying individual claims.
``For France, it's a question of learning from its history and of
making reparations where necessary,'' Jospin told the annual dinner
hosted by the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions.
Fifty-three years after the close of the war, France is still plagued
by accusations that it is hesitant to face its pro-Nazi
collaborationist past.
Jospin denied suggestions that a government-appointed commission of
experts investigating the widespread, systematic plundering of Jewish
property met resistance from French banks and insurance companies
thought to hold unclaimed Jewish assets.
``The deliberate discreet nature of its work should not mask the
scale and quality of the results it has already achieved thanks to
the active participation of the state agencies concerned,'' Jospin
said.
Jospin said the commission would complete its probe by the end of
1999. He said a French delegation of officials and experts would
attend the meeting in Washington D.C. that starts Monday on looted
Jewish assets.
He praised France's national museum authority for doing its utmost
to track down the owners or heirs of some 2,000 pieces of unclaimed
art in its possession.
--
Election registration confuses South Africans
The Detroit News
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africans began registering for
their second all-race elections this weekend, but the occasion was
marred by confusion as even President Nelson Mandela was informed
he had gone to the wrong place.
The 25 million South Africans eligible to take part in the country's
next general election have until February to register for a poll,
which is expected to be held by July.
Opposition parties complain the process is on the verge of collapse.
They are going to the High Court to argue that some South Africans
will lose their opportunity to vote because they do not know where
to go to fill in their forms.
Mandela arrived at a registration center at a school near his home
in Johannesburg, only to hear an election observer for the opposition
Democratic Party tell him he was in the wrong voting district and he
must repeat the process in the correct place at a later date.
The ruling African National Congress claimed Mandela was registered.
But the Independent Electoral Commission said he had merely been
staging a symbolic exercise.
Officials at the election commission admitted that the day had not
gone as smoothly as hoped.
"We will go home today knowing that we will improve on the situation
tomorrow," Mandla Mchunu, chief electoral officer, said in Pretoria.
He said that a number of registration stations had not opened on time
because staff had turned up late, if at all, and in some places the
military had been called in to lend a hand.
--
Aussie Row over nazi slur
THE war over WA's forests has intensified, with the State's peak
logging body likening conservationists to nazis.
Forest Industry Federation executive officer Bob Pearce claimed
this week it was not possible to have a process of dialogue leading
to an accord with conservationists because they were committed to
"finishing off" the native hardwood industry in WA.
"Just in the same way, you can't have an accord between the nazis
and the Jews in Germany when one group doesn't recognise the
legitimate right of the other group to exist," Mr Pearce said.
He was responding to questions from the Legislative Council committee
on ecologically sustainable development about the possibility of
having an accord process between the warring parties.
The claim has outraged environmental and Jewish groups.
Council for WA Jewry president Ron Samuel said Mr Pearce's statements
were an absolute disgrace.
"How does any person compare anything to do with conservation and
land management with the mass slaughter of human beings," Mr Samuel
said.
The controversy comes on the heels of a salvo from Mr Pearce at the
timber industry's traditional ally, the National Party, in a strongly
worded letter to them.
As part of an issues paper released two weeks ago, the National Party
called for further information on logging practices and an assessment
of the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) by the Environmental Protection
Authority before the RFA is finalised.
It also favours an immediate phased introduction of a lower limit
on permissible logging volume, which is due to take effect in 2003.
"I knew from my years as education minister of the theoretical
possibility that the more you studied a subject the more ignorant
you became. But I had never encountered a practical example of this
prior to observing the Nationals at work on forest policy,'
Mr Pearce wrote.
He has been supported by the Forest Protection Society (FPS), which
has threatened to target National Party candidates at the next
election.
An FPS spokesman said the National Party had ignored the concerns
of working people in the bush.
National Party State parliamentarian Dexter Davies said the Nationals
were committed to a sustainable timber industry and also to
finalising an RFA which would provide long-term certainty.
"We are trying to get an agreement that will last and not come
unstuck as soon as it is signed," Mr Davies said.
"We seem to be being criticised for putting too much research into
the issues of considerable concern and consulting people before a
decision is made."
WA Forest Association spokesman Peter Robertson said comments by
Mr Pearce were bizarre and nonsensical.
"Their campaign has failed but in the meantime they have come to
believe their own rhetoric," Mr Robertson said.
"This situation makes it very difficult to resolve the conflict over
the forests.
"And in terms of planned extinction of species, that's more like what
happened in Germany than what we are talking about."
The head of the association's committee on ecologically sustainable
development, Christine Sharp, said Mr Pearce's comments were unhelpful
and not designed to encourage much-needed dialogue among the warring
parties.
--
Australian far-right leader Pauline Hanson cements
grip on One Nation
Agence France-Presse
ROCKHAMPTON, Australia, Nov 29 (AFP) - Founder of the far-right
One Nation party Pauline Hanson cemented her grip on power Sunday
with an overwhelming vote of confidence in her leadership.
Despite losing her seat in the Australian parliament in October
elections, delegates at the annual party conference here voted
unanimously to keep Hanson as One Nation national president.
A resolution to drop her name from the One Nation title was defeated
by 129 votes to one.
The vote means Hanson will remain the populist anti-Asia party's
figurehead and campaign around the country in that role, working
from an office in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.
Delegates also agreed that the party's national headquarters should
remain in Sydney, rather than move to Brisbane.
In a fiery speech, Hanson said she would not stand for forces within
One Nation trying to destabilise the party, telling delegates to
either support One Nation or get out.
"Members of One Nation, all I say to you now is ... don't tear this
organisation apart," she said.
"Be here to work and pull together as a team and support each other
because there are enough wolves at our door that are willing to do
it for you, for us, to us.
"So if you're not interested in being here, or being one of us, to
pull together for the right reasons, then please leave.
"Because I am very determined about this with this organisation -
it's going to run right, it's going to run smooth and we are not
going to continue putting out these bush fires around the country."
Since its disastrous showing in national polls, there has been
continued speculation that Hanson was finished and would lose her
position in the party she founded two years ago.
Some members upset with their lack of say in the running of One
Nation had suggested forming a breakaway party.
Hanson responded by delivering a speech which acknowledged democracy
as important, but useless without a strong leader.
"People come up to me all the time and say: 'We want democracy',"
she said.
"Democracy really means mob rule. There are people who are there who
have to make a final decision. People don't like it at times, and
neither do I, but I have to make a final decision because people
look at me to make that decision."
She gave her full backing to senior advisor David Oldfield who caused
a furore last week when he said Aborigines "have been killing and
eating each other for 40,000 years."
In his speech to the conference Oldfield told the small minority of
extremists he blames for undermining the party to back-off.
"We have too many idiots in our organisation, in our midst, who are
willing to stand in front of a television camera and spill their
guts," he said.
One Nation campaigns against the "Asianisation of Australia" and for
a return of protectionism as the lynchpin of its own brand of economic
isolationism.
--
Germany Charges Nazi War Crimes Suspect
STUTTGART, Germany, Nov. 27, 1998 -- (Reuters) German prosecutors
said on Thursday they had charged a 79-year-old with involvement
in the Nazi massacres of 17,000 people in Ukraine and Poland more
than 50 years ago.
The former Gestapo secret police official, identified in media
reports as Alfons Goetzfried, has been in investigative custody
in the southern German city of Stuttgart since March. He stands
accused of aiding and abetting 17,000 murders, mostly of Jews,
and of having killed 500 people himself.
State prosecutor Sabine Maylaender said the suspect had been in
the Polish city of Lublin and was suspected of taking part in
mass killings in Lublin and Lvov, now part of Ukraine, in 1942
and 1943. She said the charges came largely from his own statements.
He admitted he had personally shot dead 500 people, including women
and children, in November 1943 at Majdanek concentration camp in
Poland during a two-day operation known as "Operation Harvest
Festival," she said.
"He admitted he was there, but said he fell ill during the shooting
and passed out," she said. "He said he was reassigned to loading
the weapons...He was not a high-ranking war criminal. He was a small
cog in the wheel. There were many like him."
She said prosecutors were continuing their investigation into whether
he was also involved in the murder of another 45,000 people near
Lublin and Lvov. Maylaender said prosecutors had presented the
charges to the Stuttgart state court. The court would decide whether
to order a trial and when, she said.
Germany's Nazi war crimes investigation unit in Ludwigsburg said the
man's name had cropped up in 1959 and 1966 in their files and that
he was an ethnic German who was born in the Ukraine. He had
volunteered for the German Army in 1941, where he at first looked
after horses and worked as a translator before joining the Gestapo
in Lemberg in 1943. After the war he spent 13 years in a Siberian
prisoner-of-war camp.
Prosecutors said the suspect had moved to Germany from Kazakhstan
in 1991. Many thousands of ethnic Germans moved from Central and
Eastern Europe to Germany following the collapse of communism.
The ethnic Germans were given preferential treatment in immigrating
and obtaining German citizenship.
Prosecutors in Stuttgart were made aware of the man after he had
made self-incriminating statements while giving testimony to Nazi
crimes investigators last year. ( (c) 1998 Reuters)
--
IN ASIA, EVERYBODY PLAYS THE RACE CARD
By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Toronto Sun
Anyone who believes westerners have a monopoly on racism,
bigotry, or bad-neighbourliness, should have a good, hard look
at the Far East.
Surprisingly, it's a rarity to meet an Asian who speaks another
Asian language, overseas Chinese excepted.
When a Japanese meets a Chinese, he uses English. So, too,
when a Korean does business in Thailand or Taiwan.
Without English, Asians would often be unable to communicate
with one another.
Asians harbour intense antipathy for their neighbours. Japanese
look down on Koreans; Koreans have a volcanic hatred for
Japanese. Both respect Chinese culture, but consider modern
Chinese backwards and inept.
Chinese despise the Vietnamese, as Vietnamese do
darker-skinned Cambodians. Cambodians hate Burmese.
Burmese - and just about all other Asians - hate Indians.
In racially sensitive Asia, the lighter one's skin, the higher one's
status. You won't see many dark-skinned Chinese or Japanese in
senior government ranks.
East Asians tend to see whites as less intelligent than themselves.
Asians stereotype blacks as unintelligent.
What could better illustrate Asia's vitriolic national/racial
prejudices than the amazing fact that last week, President Jiang
Zemin became the first Chinese head of state in 1,000 years to
visit neighbouring Japan? Yet even this historic event was
overshadowed by the still festering dispute over World War II
between Japan and China.
Beijing demanded that Japan deliver a written apology for
invading and occupying part of China from 1937-45, a war in
which China claims to have suffered 20 million dead. Japanese
officials have repeatedly apologized in recent years, but Beijing
insisted on a written mea culpa.
Japan's colourless prime minister, Keizo Obuchi, would only
issue an oral apology. The Chinese went into a well-publicized
huff, almost ruining the Sino-Nipponese summit.
While it's true Japan treated many of its neighbours - notably
China, the Philippines and Korea - with cruelty and ferocity, as it
did thousands of unfortunate Allied PoWs - Japan was hardly
alone in acting beastly.
Dutch colonial troops slaughtered nearly 50,000 Indonesians in
1948. Imperial Britain savaged India and Burma. A century ago,
Britain went to war against China to force opium upon its people,
producing 20 million addicts. France mercilessly crushed
rebellions in Tonkin, and sat back while over one million
Vietnamese starved after World War II. America waged a brutal
war against Muslim Moros of the Philippines.
And don't forget Chairman Mao, darling of western liberals. The
Great Helmsman's Marxist experiments killed 30 million Chinese
peasants. That's 50% more Chinese than the Japanese killed in
World War II.
RUTHLESS BOMBING
Japan itself suffered terribly from the ruthless bombing and
nuclear attacks that razed its cities and killed huge numbers of
civilians. Asians live in glass houses. The Rape of Nanking,
where Japanese forces massacred 120,000 Chinese, was a
frightful crime. So was the hideous U.S. fire-bombing of Tokyo,
Osaka, Nagoya, and Kobe.
Chinese, of course, have a right to be angry at Japan, but few
today remember the war, and, as the century ends, it's time to
entomb past hatreds.
However, China's demands for continuing Japanese apologies
are much more about current geopolitics than past wrongs. China
is skilfully using war guilt to keep Japan on the defensive. Every
time Tokyo makes a hesitant attempt to begin acting like the
great power it should be, China beats the drums about World
War II. Koreans and Philippines happily join the chorus,
knowing that Japanese guilt - like German guilt - is a big cash
machine.
As U.S. military influence in Asia recedes, and Russia founders,
China is well aware the sole impediment to its domination of East
Asia is Japan. Chinese geopolitical analysts consider Japan a
long-term, determined, highly dangerous enemy. So China's
strategy is to keep Japan militarily impotent, and on the
diplomatic and moral defensive.
However, the U.S. has been pressing Japan to openly announce
military and logistical support of U.S. forces in South Korea in
the event North Korea attacks. Defenceless against Chinese or
North Korean missiles, Japan is finally considering building an
anti-missile shield. Both issues have roused Beijing's ire,
producing the usual accusations of "resurgent Japanese
militarism."
Chinese well understand the Japanese mentality. They are
literally trying to browbeat Japan into a state of constant
ubmission. Japanese still wallow in tribal humiliation over their
crushing wartime defeat. Japan's foreign and military policies are
those of a beaten, guilt-plagued nation that must remain forever
on best behaviour, and atone for past wrongs. Any Japanese
leaders who suggest it's time to remove the hair shirt of national
guilt are immediately branded warmongering fascists.
Each time Japan must apologize for World War II, it loses much
face among fellow Asians, many of whom relish watching the
fiercely proud Japanese having to genuflect to their "inferior"
neighbours. By forcing Japan to kow-tow, China reasserts its
self-appointed role as Asia's premier power.
It is the Confucian way. Young must pay respect to the old;
woman to man; lowborn to the high; vanquished to victor;
Japan's Shogun to the visiting Emperor of China.
--
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