9 International Sunday, September 30, 2018 Beijing eyes anti-terror force to protect overseas interests ‘Turbulence’ in ties threatens US-China security meeting

BEIJING: China is working to develop a first-class, crack to safeguard national strategic interests anywhere. “We must ‘Turbulence’ in US ties next month for the US-China Diplomatic and Security anti-terror force that can operate at home and abroad and work hard to build an internationally first-rate counter-terror Meanwhile, a key diplomatic and security meeting Dialogue, which first took place last year in Washington, a protect the country’s overseas interests, a senior Chinese crack force,” Zhang added, without giving details. China, between China and the United States next month may not reboot of earlier high-level talks under previous adminis- officer said in comments carried by state media yesterday. take place due to tensions in relations, sources briefed on trations. However, both sources said that this meeting was In late 2015, China passed a new anti-terrorism law that the matter said, potentially the latest casualty of worsening now in doubt. “There is a lot of uncertainty because of the allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror ties. Beijing and Washington are locked in a spiraling trade turbulence in the relationship,” said one the sources. The operations, though experts have said Beijing faces big China alleges war that has seen them level increasingly severe rounds of second source said that the People’s Liberation Army was practical and diplomatic problems to actually execute tariffs on each other’s imports. especially unhappy with the United States at the moment such an action. threats from Friction between the world’s top two economies is now because of the US sanctions on the Chinese military and China says it faces a threat not only from home-grown moving beyond trade, with US President Donald Trump US support for Taiwan, including approving a new round Islamists in its far western region of Xinjiang, but also from home-grown accusing Beijing this week of seeking to interfere in con- of arms sales this week. militants in the Middle East, some of whom it says are from gressional elections, marking what US officials told “The PLA is fed up over the Taiwan issue. They’re Xinjiang. In November 2015, Islamic State said it had killed Islamists Reuters was a new phase in an escalating campaign by increasingly hardline on this,” the source said. Both a Chinese citizen it had taken hostage in the Middle East. Washington to put pressure on China. On the military sources spoke on condition of anonymity as the trips In an interview with the official Xinhua news agency, front, China has been infuriated by the United States put- have not been made public. They also cautioned the Zhang Xiaoqi, intelligence chief at China’s paramilitary ting sanctions on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for meetings may still take place as planned, and that no People’s Armed Police which is part of the Chinese military, buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as final decisions have been reached. China’s Defense said developing special forces was an important component which has consistently said that it does not interfere in the stepped up US support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by Ministry said it was talking to the United States about of the country’s overall military modernization. “The mission affairs of other countries, is the only permanent member of China as its sacred territory. the dialogue. “China and the United States have all scope of the special forces stretches from land to sea, from the UN Security Council which has not taken military action Two Beijing-based diplomatic sources familiar with the along maintained communication about the diplomatic home to abroad,” Zhang said. in Syria. The government is yet to specify how any overseas plans said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US and security dialogue,” it said in a statement to Reuters, He said that “anti-terror fight preparations” must be ready military, counter-terror operation would work. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were both due in Beijing without elaborating. — Agencies

be mayor of Tokyo in 2012 and 2014. Critics worry about soil contamination at Powerful Toyosu, which delayed the move from its ‘Save Tsukiji’: original date of 2016. Tokyo mayor Yuriko batters Okinawa, Koike insisted earlier this month that the protesters new complex, located on a former gas churns to Japan plant, would be safe and provide a “cut- ting-edge” environment for the selling of cry out fish. Utsunomiya however said that pro- mainland TOKYO: Braving steady typhoon-driven testers could not understand why Tokyo rain, several hundred protesters held a would get rid of a site like Tsukiji which has SHIBUSHI: A powerful typhoon pummeled demonstration yesterday in Tokyo a “global reputation and which all the for- Japan’s southern island of Okinawa yesterday, against the closure of Tsukiji, the world’s eign tourists will want to visit, especially as injuring at least 17, as weather officials biggest fish market and a lucrative tourist we approach the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.” warned the storm would rip through the magnet. The two-hour protest drew fish- Proponents of the move argue that Japanese archipelago over the weekend. mongers, clients and fans of the market, Tsukiji is no longer fit for purpose, espe- Typhoon Trami, packing maximum gusts of which is due to close its doors on cially when it comes to modern-day 216 kilometers per hour near its centre, was October 6 after 83 years to move to a hygiene and fire regulations. But Asunaro forecast to hit the mainland today and cause site in Toyosu, several kilometers east. Suetake, one of the protesters, said it was extreme weather across the country into “Save the culture of Tsukiji” and “strange to move the world’s biggest fish tomorrow. “Tsukiji can live for another 100 years” market to a polluted site, especially when Television footage showed branches were among the slogans chanted by the the majority of fishmongers are ripped from trees by strong winds blocking protesters, who have filed a legal suit in a opposed.” Tsukiji market opened in 1935 a main street in the regional capital , as bid to prevent the move. Lawyer Kenji and is famed for its pre-dawn tuna auc- well as torrential horizontal rain and massive SHIBUSHI: A woman walks her dog as she watches waves hitting the seawall at the coast Utsunomiya told AFP he had “always tions, with one fish going for more than waves splashing over breakwaters on a of Shibushi city, Kagoshima prefecture, on Kyushu Island yesterday, as typhoon Trami argued for Tsukiji to stay in Tsukiji.” “The $320,000 at the market’s final New remote island in the area. Local policemen in approaches. — AFP new site at Toyosu is not suitable for Year’s auction last year. The new Toyosu rain jackets wielding chainsaws were bat- wholesalers. There are going to be a lot of market will officially throw open its doors tling the furious wind to remove fallen trees. on October 11. — AFP problems,” said Utsunomiya, who ran to The gusts were strong enough to overturn a across Japan to be on alert for strong another typhoon was following in its course. truck and smash the glass windows of a winds, high waves and heavy rain. Angler Masakazu Hirase told AFP: “It’s bank. Some 700 people were evacuated to “The typhoon is feared to bring record dreadful because we already know there’s shelters in Okinawa and electricity was cut rainfalls and violent winds over large areas,” another typhoon after this one but you can- to nearly 200,000 homes, public broadcast- agency official Yasushi Kajiwara told not compete with nature. We do what we er NHK said. reporters. “Please stay on alert, evacuate can to limit the damage.” If the forecast At least 386 flights were cancelled, mainly early and ensure your safety,” the official holds, it will be the latest in a series of in western Japan, according to NHK. West said. After raking the outlying islands, the extreme natural events to strike Japan. Japan Railway said it would suspend all serv- typhoon is forecast to pick up speed and Western regions are still recovering from ices in the Osaka region and cancel some approach western Japan today “with a very the most powerful typhoon to strike the Shinkansen bullet trains by noon today. strong force” as it barrels over the main- country in a quarter of a century in early Seventeen people suffered minor injuries in land, he added. There have already been September. claimed 11 lives storm-related accidents in Okinawa and sev- heavy downpours in large areas of western and shut down Kansai Airport, the main eral houses suffered some damage but no one and eastern Japan, including the capital, as regional airport. Officials at Kansai were was feared dead, local officials said. “The the storm spurred a seasonal rain front. already making preparations, placing sand- number may rise further as we are in the mid- The weather agency issued a warning of bags and warning that they may be forced dle of sorting out figures,” said Masatsune landslides in Wakayama, western Japan, to close the airport. Deadly record rains Miyazato, an official at the island’s disaster- where local authorities separately also hit western Japan earlier this year and management office. “People in Okinawa are announced that a local river had reached the country sweltered through one of the used to but we are strongly urging “dangerous levels”. Fishermen in Kagoshima hottest summers on record. Also in them to stay vigilant,” he said. bay, where the typhoon is expected to make September, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake TOKYO: Demonstrators protest against the impending move of the Tsukiji fish landfall, were already making preparations, rocked the northern island of Hokkaido, market to Toyosu in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP ‘Very strong force’ tying down their boats as Trami sparking landslides and leaving more than The weather agency warned people approached-even as forecasters warned that 40 people dead. — AFP