International18 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014 Echoes of WWI in China resonate over Japan ties

QINGDAO, China: A century ago on Friday German troops raised the white flag over a fortress on the Chinese coast, surrendering to Japan as Tokyo expanded its presence, fuelling animosity that hampers relations with Beijing to this day. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have yet to hold a formal summit and despite Abe’s desire for one next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing, the prospects are murky against a backdrop of territorial disputes and historical resentment. The Siege of Tsingtao was the sole battle of World War I fought in East Asia, and total deaths were in the hundreds, far from the carnage Europe would see during its four-year slaughter. But the battle’s implications were far-reaching, highlighting China’s impo- tence in the face of machinations by foreign powers on its own soil as German control was ceded to Japan, and contributing to an ongoing awakening in Chinese national consciousness. “This is a small, relatively forgotten battle but it’s emblematic both of the way that foreign powers fought one another, handed out territory between themselves and so on in China with no reference to the Chinese at all,” British author Jonathan Fenby, who published a his- tory of the siege, said at a talk in Beijing. It was a milestone in the relationship between China and Japan MANILA: Girls wait in the thriving district of Angeles City north of Manila. —AFP he said, adding: “One underestimates the hostility there at one’s peril.” Contemporary relations between the Asian giants remain haunted by history, particularly the legacy of Japan’s World War II Philippine sin city was magnet aggression and a still simmering dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. Contacts between the two sides have increased in recent weeks and a handshake between Abe and Chinese Premier Li for Briton charged in HK Keqiang at an October meeting of European and Asian leaders in Milan added to speculation a significant meeting with Xi at APEC Jutting charged after 2 Indonesian women found dead was possible. But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei declined to ANGELES CITY, Philippines: A wealthy British for many people in the Philippines. Jutting had family, or even just for friendship,” the 24-year- be drawn on the prospect Thursday, offering only Beijing’s stock banker charged over grisly twin murders in been a regular there since January, and soon old said. Alumarde said she earned up to 3,000 response that Japan should “show sincerity” and “take concrete Hong Kong was a regular in a shabby red-light began dating one of the hostesses who would pesos ($67) a night in tips from Koreans and measures” to improve relations. district of the Philippines where he liked to flash later appear in photos with him on his Australians at the bar. A drink for the women at his cash and was treated like a king. The women Facebook page, according to her colleagues. the bar costs 250 pesos and they receive 100 ‘National Humiliation’ in skimpy outfits working the short stretch of But the two apparently broke up in August pesos of that. Managers of other bars said it was Many ordinary Chinese citizens remain deeply suspicious of go-go and hostess bars of Angeles City remem- after he was seen with a different woman on his up to women to negotiate with their clients if their neighbor across the water. “The Japanese just want to pick a ber Rurik Jutting fondly. arm, they said. That was the last time they saw they wanted to take them outside of the bar, fight, like Abe,” said an unemployed man visiting a park that used At the cramped Del Rio bar, workers said he him there. The ex-girlfriend, who now works at with a night of sex costing around 1,000 pesos to house German military facilities in Qingdao-the modern translit- would swig bottles of a local low-calorie beer another Angeles bar, did not return messages ($22). eration of the city’s name. When World War I broke out in the sum- while handing out cash, buying everyone from AFP seeking comment. A co-worker said mer of 1914, China was in political turmoil after the fall of the Qing rounds of drinks and keeping an eye on one of on Wednesday that she had not reported to ‘Paradise’ Dynasty just three years earlier. Foreign countries controlled key the dancers, who would become his girlfriend. work for four days. Jutting was charged with At nightfall, the Angeles bars light up and ports and enjoyed extraterritorial rights for their citizens. One of Women would rush to the door when they saw murder this week in Hong Kong, where he huge speakers blare out pop music while them was Germany. A relative latecomer to colonial adventures, Jutting arrive and lead him to his favorite spot, a worked as a securities trader for Bank of women try to entice customers into the bars. In Germany in 1897 seized the Yellow Sea port of Qingdao, which moldy fake-leather couch that they covered America Merrill Lynch, after police found two the lobby of a hotel where a hostess worker became its key naval base in Asia and the Pacific, where it also had with a pink blanket so he would not get rashes dead Indonesian women in his luxury apart- said Jutting once stayed, one clock displays possessions in far-flung New Guinea, Samoa and the Marshall on his legs, said 26-year-old hostess Joy Reyes. ment. Sydney time, another London time, while a Islands, among others. German-style architecture can still be seen “He’s a big spender. Everyone would welcome third clock is set to Manila time and labelled in Qingdao, a hilly, verdant city known throughout China for him whenever he’s here. It also doesn’t hurt Escape from poverty “Paradise”. “This is an entertainment place,” said another German cultural legacy-its namesake Tsingtao beer. that he is handsome,” she said. Jutting would Angeles City, a couple of hours’ drive north 48-year-old Carol Bomedian, who has been run- Japan, for its part, was a fast modernising power coming off pull out a folded wad of cash from his right of the capital Manila, emerged as a red-light dis- ning one bar for over a decade. “We have what military victories over the Qing and Imperial Russia. And when pocket, and would peel off notes from the bun- trict decades ago when the United States had a they’re looking for.” As Jutting waits in deten- World War I broke out it supported its ally Britain, some of whose dle to give away, according to bartender Linda major air base nearby. The bars and love hotels tion for his next Hong Kong court appearance, troops also took part in the siege. Laida, 43. remained after the base closed in 1991, contin- on Monday, those who remember him in Hostilities commenced in late August with a blockade, while “It shows that he’s a banker. He knows how uing to lure women from the poorest Filipino Angeles ponder what went wrong. The women the full-scale siege began on October 31. When it was over eight to count his money fast and knew exactly how families. One of the workers at the Del Rio, Len at Del Rio say he was never a mean drunk and days later Japanese authority replaced Germany’s in Qingdao in a much he was giving out,” Laida said. Alumarde, said she lost her job as a computer always entertaining when he took them out for transfer later formally endorsed by the Treaty of Versailles. saleswoman when Super Typhoon Haiyan hit dinner and a night of karaoke. “He is not a sex Noriyuki Nakama, a Japanese businessman visiting Qingdao, said Relationship break-up her hometown last year in the eastern maniac and he was always neatly dressed,” 22- that his nation’s actions should be seen in the context of geopoli- The women at the Del Rio said Jutting Philippines. She moved to Angeles two months year-old dancer Jovelyn de los Santos said. “He tics a century ago, when he said Japan’s own fears of Western would spend up to 20,000 pesos ($450) a night ago after being unable to find a job at home. “I wasn’t like other men who have only sex on colonialism drove it to strengthen itself and embrace expansion at the bar-the equivalent of an annual income want to find a foreigner to help me support my their minds.” —AFP as a result. —AFP ‘Mao plot’ general’s daughter calls for historical reckoning

BEIJING: The daughter of a Chinese Communist military 1971 when the plane he was fleeing in crashed in Mongolia. stones. “In her impromptu remarks, Lin Biao’s daughter Lin commander accused of plotting to overthrow Mao and killed After the incident, Lin was quickly denounced as a Doudou called for full respect of historical facts and for inten- in a mysterious plane wreck has called for a full accounting of “counter-revolutionary conspirator”. According to a report by sified efforts to unearth and sort out historical incidents,” the history, a report said yesterday. the China Red Tourism Network, Lin’s daughter Lin Liheng, report said. The report did not specify whether Lin was refer- Mao, the founding father of Communist China, selected also known as Lin Doudou, made rare public remarks at a ring to the circumstances surrounding her father’s death. Lin Biao as his handpicked successor. But he was later gathering of the children of former Red Army leaders at a News of her remarks comes as China’s Communist chief accused of plotting a coup during the tumultuous decade Beijing hotel earlier this month to commemorate the begin- Xi Jinping is working to strengthen the ruling party control known as the Cultural Revolution, and died in September ning of the 1934-35 Long March and other historical mile- over the military. —AFP