Extracts. Commentary: Thought-Provoking Silence In the first half of May, the envoy of the US government went to lobby Europe, trying hard to win NATO member countries' understanding of and support for the NMD development program, but his effort came to nothing. Taking advantage of the NATO foreign ministers' council meeting held at the end of May, the United States <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/usa.html> tried to put pressure on them, but none of the 18 member countries, except the United States itself, clearly expressed their approval or understanding of the United States' NMD program. The silence of these allies is really thought-provoking, apparently, among the NATO allies, it is not only France <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/france.html> and Germany <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/germany.html> that oppose the United States' NMD program. Superficially, the NMD program is said to be directed against "rogue countries", but in essence, it contains other aims. Most of the United States' NATO allies are in Europe which are very close to Russia <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/russia.html> . Although Russia's comprehensive national strength has declined in recent years, militarily, however, it remains "a giant". Over the past year and more since Vladimir Putin took office, in particular, Russia has shown its momentum of rising again. For the United States' NATO allies, it is crystal clear as to which is beneficial to them: to live in harmony and seek common development with Russia, or to set themselves against Russia. Unless Russia changes its stance of opposition to the NMD program, the 18 member states of NATO perhaps would not easily change their attitude. With regard to the United States' NMD program, currently, only India <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/india.html> , Japan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/japan.html> and several other countries overtly or covertly support it, while the overwhelming majority of countries and regions around the world disapprove or oppose it. What's the need for NATO member states to stand opposite to the overwhelming majority of countries around the world and be a cat's paw for others? Under the circumstance of the constant development of economic globalization, the present need of NATO member states is to diversify world markets, they do not tie themselves to the "chariot" of the United States and cut off their own road to financial revenue. Obviously, this is a sensible consideration. After it clearly expressed its opposition to the NMD program, Russia has dramatically increased its military appropriation and on June 1 it officially declared its organization of a 90,000-strong aerospace force. Although NATO has declared fixing its relationship with Russia in a "cooperative partner" position, if it does not stop the United States' NMD program, it will hardly be possible to avoid being drawn into a new arms race. The fact that the 18 NATO member states say "no" to or keep silence about the United States' NMD program once again proves that "A just cause enjoys abundant support while an unjust cause finds little support", from which the important personages of US political and military circles should come to realize the truth. **** Japan's Germ Warfare Effort Unmasked The recent discovery of more than 1,200 miscellaneous wartime objects in Northeast China stands as powerful evidence that Japan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/japan.html> was pursuing germ warfare experiments during its invasion of China in 1930s and 1940s, according to experts. The collection of military gear, which includes gas masks, bacteria bombs, injectors and a high-pressure boiler, was found at the site occupied by Unit 731, one of Japan's key germ warfare units, during the War of Resistance Against Japan. According to historians, Japanese army Unit 731 specialized in bacteria research. In 1935, the army set up a bacteria experiment plant and used local residents as human test subjects. The site is located in a district of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/heilongjiang.html> Province. Jin Chengmin, one of the chief researchers who made the discovery, said Thursday that the gas masks, bombs and other gear will be permanently open for public viewing beginning on Tuesday. "All we need is the truth and nothing but the truth. That is the only way to pay tribute to those who were killed or hurt by the germ warfare," Jin said. At least 270,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed as a result of Japanese germ warfare between 1933 and 1945, according to an in-depth study by Chinese and Japanese scholars. The Chinese prisoners were deliberately exposed to a number of deadly diseases including typhoid, cholera and anthrax, the scholars claimed. Jin, one of the leading experts on Japan's invasion of China, claimed it was difficult to determine a real death toll in the Unit 731 case because Japan's military headquarters ordered its units in China to destroy evidence of biological warfare as early as August 9, 1945. According to Jin, Japan knitted a comprehensive biological warfare network in China that included bases in Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> , Nanjing, Guangzhou and Harbin. Japan acknowledged several years ago that Unit 731 had existed, but the government denies the unit killed prisoners and has refused to apologize. Over the past decade, scholars from China, Japan and the US have been engaged in extensive studies of Japanese germ warfare. Shoji Kondo, a TV journalist who began to study Japanese germ warfare in 1976, urged the Japanese Government and leaders to apologize to the Chinese of the war crimes. "It (apology) should be done before all the victims and their relatives die," Kondo said during his recent trip to China. A group of 180 Chinese civilians have filed lawsuits in Tokyo District Court since February 1998, calling for apologies and compensation for the deaths of relatives who they claim were victims of Japanese germ warfare. Expressing his support for the plaintiffs, Jin Chengmin said research work will continue at the Unit 731 site. "We will continue to hunt for proof, even though Japan has tried to cover up the facts and revised its history textbook to whitewash the crimes," Jin said. **** Album Providing Evidence of Japanese Aggression Discovered A Japanese-language photo album featuring scenes of Japanese aggression against China in the 1930s has been discovered. The album, published in Japan in 1932 and discovered at a secondhand bookstall by Zhang Jianheng, a clerk with Beijing's Shouqi Group, contains about 800 pictures and related captions. These pictures, mostly taken by Japanese war correspondents, record scenes of killings, air raids and other atrocities committed by Japanese troops in northeast China and major Chinese cities like Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Zhuang Jianping, a historian with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that most of the photos in the album have never been seen in China before. "The album provides undeniable evidence of Japanese aggression against China," Zhuang added. **** US Plans to Conduct Fourth Missile Defense Test in July The United States plans to conduct the fourth test of a planned missile defense system by the end of next month, a Defense Department spokesman said Friday. This will be the first Bush administration flight test of the controversial multibillion U.S. dollar ballistic missile defense. The test would involve the same components as the last one - a dummy warhead and decoy launched from California's Vandenburg Air Force Base and a prototype interceptor with a 54-kilogram "kill vehicle" launched 6,919 kilometers away, from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. "And hopefully, they'll meet somewhere over the Pacific," said Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. The test is likely in "mid to late July, based on current planning," he said. Two of three U.S. missile defense tests have failed to prove the system would work, most recently on July 8 last year when an attempt to intercept and destroy a dummy warhead in space failed because the weapon did not separate from the second stage of its liftoff rocket. Those misses led former U.S. President Bill Clinton on September 1 last year to defer the politically charged decision on when to take the first steps toward deploying a national missile defense. The project is estimated to cost as much 60 billion dollars for the land-based leg of interceptors, radar stations and battle management network. Arms control experts said that the U.S. missile defense plan, opposed by the international community, will not only spark a new arms race, but also threaten world peace and security, and stimulate nuclear proliferation. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
