When Americans Ruled Beijing

The Americans, like all other allied nations, were also heavily engaged in looting and pillaging. A U.S. diplomat, Herbert G. Squiers, filled several railroad cars with loot. Assaults on civilians were also not uncommon.  For example, Stephen Dwyer, a U.S. Marine, forced his way into a Chinese home wielding a bludgeon to “brutally assault and strike a Chinese child of tender years… driving it from its home and thereby hastening its death.” He then went on to rape the two women living in the house.

The Diplomat

Japan emperor's WWII 'remorse' a prod to Abe

Link

Qigong gaining popularity as a healing tool in the West

Qigong is a thousand-year-old discipline that integrates physical postures, breathing techniques and focused intention to heal the body and mind. Some of its therapeutic benefits, scientifically proven in China, are now being studied and promoted in the West.

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Asia wants positive US-China ties: Singapore's PM Lee

Every country in Asia hopes that the relationship between the United States and China will be positive, and no one wants to have to pick sides between the two giants, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday.

Heirs of the ‘Secret War’ in Laos

It marks the treachery of the United States government, which went into an unknown country, waged years of war, and then dropped everything in a moment’s notice.

Today, most Americans know nothing about the Secret War. A classified operation, C.I.A. officials easily terminated the effort when everything went awry. It was a disposable war, intended to look like it never happened.

Japanese academics urge 'comfort women' reckoning

Japanese academics have called on the conservative government to face up to its responsibility over "comfort women", echoing an open letter from leading foreign scholars urging an honest accounting for wartime wrongdoing.

Link

4 Reasons Why China Is No Threat to South China Sea Commerce

US diplomacy is not served by exaggerating or inventing military threats, such as threats to commercial shipping.

The Diplomat

NSA planned hack of Google app store to plant spyware on phones

The US National Security Agency (NSA) developed plans to hack into data links to app stores operated by Google and Samsung to plant spyware on smartphones, a media report said Thursday.

Abe’s Japan Cannot Apologize for the Pacific War

Yasukuni Shrine will continue to compromise any apology that Japan’s leaders can offer.

Link

Strangled by Ivy

The first part of my advice squarely parallels what William Deresiewicz, former professor at Yale University, mainly wants to convey in his book released last year, Excellent Sheep. In it, he argues Ivy-League students lack imagination, avoid risk, and are more likely to conform. Those who get into Harvard are indeed excellent and driven, but the system also makes them "anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose." The madness of credentialism as well as lust for prestige and success drive students to head "meekly in the same direction, great at what they're doing but with no idea why they're doing it."

Link

Abe’s refusal to offer apology diminishes Japan

China and South Korea’s ire over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s speech to the US Congress is to be expected, given that he chose to gloss over Japan’s war of aggression in East Asia during World War II.

The rise of China's sugar daddies and a 'broker for gold diggers'

More than 100,000 men join website hooking up the mature and affluent with younger partners

Japan academics call on Tokyo to face history

A group of nearly 200 academics, including Pulitzer Prize winners, has published an open letter calling on Japan to face up to its World War II crimes, including its system of sex slavery.

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Letter

Free Parking in Singapore

11 Car Parks in Singapore You Didn’t Know Had Free Parking

Link

Does Australia have double standards for Bali Nine duo?

BBC

China 'seriously concerned' at New Zealand hack attempt report

China's Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern on Monday after a newspaper reported that New Zealand and U.S. intelligence services planned to hack into a data link between Chinese government buildings in Auckland.

Reuters

New Zealand PM happy to talk to China about spy claims

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on Monday invited Chinese officials to quiz him about reports that Wellington worked with US intelligence on a plan to hack Chinese diplomatic communications.

Link

Revealed: the team behind China’s Operation Fox Hunt against graft suspects hiding abroad

Man leading hunt for corrupt officials overseas reveals the qualities that make his team tick

Former Filipino nurse charged with sedition and giving false info to police

Filipino Ed Mundsel Bello Ello, who was sacked by Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), faces two charges of publishing a seditious comment on his Facebook account and three of lying to the police.

If Only—To The Memory Of Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015)

Catherine Lim