If you're looking for job security, you probably don’t want to run for prime minister of Japan. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s government is once again under threat, following former Japanese minister Yoshimi Watanabe’s resignation from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan with few interruptions since 1955. Watanabe's move comes at a time when Prime Minister Taro Aso is experiencing levels of unpopularity that would shock even President Bush, with approval ratings below 20 percent.

Ever since 2006, Japan has seen a revolving door of Prime Ministers. Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda each held the top position for about a year before anemic approval ratings, LDP electoral losses, and legislative paralysis forced them from office. Watanabe’s maneuver is meant to force Aso to call snap elections, instead of waiting for the general elections scheduled for September. A group of Watanabe-led LDP legislators could join the opposition in blocking legislation in the lower house of Parliament, paralyzing Aso's ability to govern. If he succeeds, Prime Minister Aso will likely follow the path of his two successors.

The legacy of Junichiro Koizumi, who served as Japan's Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006, weighs heavily on his successors. Japanese politics had historically been controlled by Japan's traditional political families working within the internal factions of the LDP; Koizumi changed all that by taking his case directly to the Japanese voters. With Japan's preeminent status in Asia threatened by an enduring economic recession and China's rising power, none of the post-Koizumi leaders have been able to gain the public's trust in a similar way.

"Koizumi was committed to serious, structural reforms, and no other Prime Minister has made that sort of connection with the Japanese public," the New America Foundation's Steve Clemons told me.

The good news is that Japan's opposition is gaining enough strength to challenge the LDP, which could mean a new crop of leaders and ideas. Faced with a daunting set of challenges, that could be exactly what Japan needs.

Photo: Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images

A table-tennis match on Jan. 7 in Beijing marked the 30-year anniversary of the establishment of normalized diplomatic relations between China and the United States on Jan. 1, 1979. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, center left, and China's Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya, center right, attended.

In April 1971, China invited the U.S. table-tennis team to visit in what Time magazine called "the ping heard round the world." One of the Americans was then 15-year-old Judy Bochenski Hoarfrost, right, who returned today to play veteran Chinese player Qi Baoxiang, left. The 1971 visit launched an era of "Ping-Pong diplomacy," and according to Time, "Probably never before in history has a sport been used so effectively as a tool of international diplomacy." Obviously, with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it hasn't been the only time China has used sports to try to improve its image.

See also:

• Chinese President Hu Jintao dominates at the Ping-Pong table.
• The FP photo essay, "China's 30 Years of Economic Overdrive," marks the reforms set in motion by Deng Xiaopeng.

An undersea cable near Egypt in the Mediterranean was cut today, disrupting Internet access for millions:

The main damage through is to the four submarine cables running across the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal.

It is thought that 65% of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan have also been severely affected.

The cause of the cut is unknown though there was some seismic activity recorded near Malta. This certainly seems like a pretty serious story:

Jonathan Wright - director of wholesale products at Interoute which manages part of the optical fibre network - told the BBC that the effects of the break would be felt for many days.

"This will grind economies to a halt for a short space of time," he said "If you look at, say, local financial markets who trade with European and US markets, the speed at which they get live data will be compromised." [...]

"We've lost three out of four lines. If the fourth cable breaks, we're looking at a total blackout in the Middle East," said Mr Wright.

"These three circuits account for 90% of the traffic and we're going to see more international phone calls dropping and a huge degradation in the quality of local internet,"

 

If financial transactions as far away as Singapore were really blocked by a minor undersea earthquake near Malta, it's a pretty sobering reminder of the fragile physical ties that make our virtual world possible.

This month marks the 30-year anniversary of economic reforms launched by late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping that have turned China today into one of the most powerful countries in the world. In late 1991, the New York Times reported that Deng told China's Economic Daily:

In the end, convincing those who do not believe in socialism will depend on our nation's development. If we can reach a comfortable standard of living by the end of this century [the 20th], then that will wake them up a bit. And in the next century [the 21th], when we as a socialist country join the middle ranks of the developed nations, that will help to convince them. Most of these people will genuinely see that they were mistaken.

Fast-forward to 2008: China has been doing astoundingly well, but people in developed countries aren't exactly admitting to being mistaken about socialism. Rather, "communist" China has learned how to play the capitalist game -- well.

To see a timeline of China's economic advances during the past three decades, check out FP's latest photo essay, "China's 30 Years of Economic Overdrive."

AFP/Getty Images, China Photos/Getty Images

Looking for a safe harbor to park your cash? Invest in Korean ramen. Bloomberg:

[South Korea's] economic woes are helping sales of instant noodles called "ramyeon," which typically cost about 68 cents a pot. Sales rose 38 percent in October compared with the same period last year, according to the 24-hour convenience store chain FamilyMart. Shares of Nong Shim, which makes the nation's best-selling brand of ramyeon, gained 17 percent in the past month.

Sales of cigarettes and condoms are up, too.

François-Xavier Roux, the French doctor who treated North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, has confirmed that the country's Dear Leader did in fact suffer a stroke:

The doctor . . . told Le Figaro, the French daily: “Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke but did not undergo an operation. He is now better.”

Dr. Roux, a Paris-based neurosurgeon, added: “The photos that have just been published seem recent and authentic to me. I have the impression that he is in charge in North Korea. I can’t say more because of medical confidentiality and state secrecy.”

That was the easy part. It'll take a 007-level intelligence effort to find out who's been jockeying for Kim's position.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

China recently released a list of the 15 foreigners who have had the biggest influence on China since its economic reforms 30 years ago. It's no surprise that the government -- led by its arch-technocrats, hydraulic engineer President Hu Jintao and geological engineer Premier Wen Jiabao -- chose to shine the spotlight primarily on Nobel winners, scientists, and bureaucratic heads.

Those honored include Chinese-American physicist Franklin Yang Chen-ning, who helped restore China's research community after the bleak years of the Cultural Revolution; Hein Verbruggen, the International Olympic Committee member who helped bring the Olympics to Beijing; and Seiei Toyama, a Japanese environmental expert who "worked on reforestation projects in regions subject to desertification," according to the Wall Street Journal.

If that list leaves you scratching your head, you aren't alone. It does contain one "big name" though: starchitect I.M. Pei, who was actually born in Guangzhou before he moved to Hong Kong as a child and later the United States.

It's surely right to honor these people for their work, particularly when they otherwise might be overlooked. But the list leaves me wondering: Which other foreigners might make the list? Michael Jordan? Kobe Bryant? After all, basketball is now the most popular sport in China. Bill Gates? Gorbachev? As long as it's not Ronald McDonald.

Top Story

In a new tally, Chinese officials said Monday that six infants died and nearly 300,000 were sickened by melamine-tainted milk during the recent scandal. A Ministry of Health statement revealed that 860 babies are still hospitalized with urinary-tract or kidney problems, 154 of them in serious condition.

Confidence in China's dairy industry remains weak as year-on-year dairy exports dropped 92 percent in October. However, heavily discounted valuations for Chinese dairy companies prompted the U.S. private equity firm KKR to invest $100 million in one Chinese raw milk supplier, seeking to ride the $18 billion market back up as regulation strengthens and people return to consuming milk.

KKR's vote-of-confidence shows that industry experts believe the Chinese government is capable of implementing and enforcing effective regulations. The scandal, however, which involved large numbers of small milk suppliers, illustrates the difficulty the government has had in addressing agricultural and food-safety problems before they become crises. Prevention is the next step.

General News

Taxi strikes spread to the city of Foshan in Guangdong province. Three-hundred drivers are protesting exorbitant management fees and lax regulation of unlicensed cabs.

Inflation has eased with the slowing economy, prompting Chinese officials to drop food-price controls enacted earlier this year.

Charter flights have retrived the last of more than 3,000 Chinese citizens that were stranded in Thailand after protesters shut down Bangkok's main airports.

Politics

China's vice premier, Wang Qishan, called for more concrete measures to stimulate domestic demand as Chinese exports continue to fall.

Some 770,000 people took the national civil service exam on Sunday. They are vying for 13,566 government spots.

Business & Economics

The China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $3.29 billion deal to build an oil pipeline in the United Arab Emirates.

Coca-Cola submitted an application to Chinese anti-trust regulators, hoping to win approval for its acquisition of Huiyuan Juice Group, which commands half of China's juice market. 

Science & Environment 

China launched the "Yaogan IV" satellite, which will conduct land surveys and aid in disaster prevention and relief.

China Moment

Earlier this year, retired New York City subway cars were turned into underwater reef habitats off the U.S. coast. As for Beijing's old subway cars, many now house impressionable youngsters. Beijing sent 60 cars to quake-affected Sichuan province, where they were converted for use as student dormitories.

Photos: China Photos/Getty Images

Top Story

Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Havana, Cuba yesterday, where he signed more than a dozen economic agreements between China and Cuba. The deals included purchases of Cuban raw materials such as nickel and sugar, a $70 million pledge to help renovate Cuban hospitals, and the postponement of debt payments that Cuba owes China.

Hu also met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro, whom he praised for having struggled "to safeguard state sovereignty" and adhered "to the path of socialism, thus winning respect from people worldwide, including the Chinese people."

Granma, the Cuban Communist Party mouthpiece newspaper, imparted praise on China's economic reforms the day before the visit, but also criticized the income disparities that have arisen. It will be interesting to see which of the reform precedents set by China, arguably the most important of Cuba's communist brethren, President Raul Castro may deem appropriate for the island nation.

General News

Twenty-one people are dead after a subway tunnel under construction collapsed in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

Thousands of protesters clashed with police in northwestern Gansu province over a government plan to resettle residents. This latest in a string of unrest in western and southern China has officials concerned that forthcoming economic hardship could cause isolated incidents to spread into wider discontent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to prescreen Chinese goods bound for the U.S.

Politics

China rejects the possibility of sending troops to Afghanistan.

Despite warming relations between China and India, India has cast suspicion on China's growing presence in the region, especially in The Maldives.

Business & Economics

A long awaited fuel tax will soon come into effect. Proceeds are to replace road tolls as a means to fund highway construction.

China's internet-based economy grew by 52.2 percent in the third quarter, with advertising and games making up 72.7 percent of the total income.

Science & Environment

In a bid to reduce chemical residues in milk, Chinese scientists are using herbs in place of hormones to increase milk production in cows.

A new study finds that 12 percent of Chinese children and adolescents in big cities are overweight and notes a growing rate of diabetes.

China Moment

After catching a Ningbo teenager illegally posting advertisements, officials had the boy cover his body with those advertisements as punishment. Naturally, the pictures wound up online and have sparked debat. (Hat tip: WSJ China Journal.)

ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images

In an interview that appeared on the front page of the Financial Times today, a senior Chinese military official gave some "hints" about China's aircraft carrier program. "Even if one day we have an aircraft carrier, unlike another country, we will not use it to pursue global deployment or global reach," promised Major Gen. Qian Lihua, director of the the Defense Ministry's foreign affairs office.

In last week's FP List, we called for Agent 007 to secretly gather evidence about China's naval capabilities. Far from being reassuring, these vague comments from the Chinese military make James Bond's (hypothetical) task even more urgent. We'd like to know the truth.

In response to the FT article, Richard Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a security think tank, told me today that "China has waged an at times sophisticated and at times facile campaign of disinformation surrounding its aircraft carrier program."  He believes the world will never get a transparent description of China's carrier program.

The irony, though, is that this latest "campaign of disinformation", while growing more sophisticated, clings tightly to its facile notions. On the one hand, the Chinese government has deployed an English-speaking and "avuncular"  military official (as the FT describes Qian) to massage the international press corps, which is quite unprecendented for China's notoriously tight-lipped military. Yet the Chinese government seems to believe that other countries will not question its intentions, that simply averring it has no wide ranging naval ambitions is enough to divert the world's attention elsewhere.

When pressed about its technological capabilities, "the [People's Liberation Army] will seek to couch their missions in defensive terminology," Fisher says. "However, the usual approach ... is to assess the capability of the platform, its electronics and weapons, and then assume they will be used to the maximum envelope of those capabilities for any range of offensive and defensive missions." When China does launch an aircraft carrier, it's possible that the crosshairs will be trained only on the Taiwan Strait. But that certainly can't last forever. Qian will have to find an easier pill for the rest of the world to swallow.

Photo: KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images

Here's why you should never bet against Japanese innovation.

At right, Japanese Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe feeds himself with the assistance of "My Spoon" during a demonstration of healthcare robots in Tokyo on Nov. 10. People with disabilities can operate a joystick with their jaw, hands, or feet to direct My Spoon to their mouth.

My Spoon has undergone rigorous research and development, which seems to have paid off. It won a Robot of the Year award in 2006.

Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Despite the greater-than-expected losses reported by Ford and GM today, such abysmal results fail to surprise anyone these days. The U.S. car industry's "Big Three" have lumbered on with bloated bureaucracies and product lines for many years now. But what the financial crisis has done is bring into sharp relief which carmakers are poised for survival and which are destined for the scrap heap.

Carmakers the world over have been hurting. Sales at BMW fell 8.3 percent in October, while Toyota recently cut its year-end profit forecast by 63 percent. The outlook is particularly bad for Europe, since 60-80 percent of car purchases there use credit-financing, the availability of which continues to shrink, while only 30 percent of car purchases in Japan are credit-financed. Meanwhile, slower automobile production in Europe is also taking a major toll on U.S. parts suppliers, adding insult to injury as the suppliers' prospects have already tanked with the car industry at home.

But even if carmakers everywhere are suffering, what sets apart a company like Toyota, currently the world's largest car manufacturer, is cash. Toyota has $18.5 billion in cash and a steady hand on those reserves. As for General Motors, flagging sales have caused the company to burn through $6.9 billion in cash in the last quarter alone. Fewer people are buying cars, but GM still has to pay its bills -- employee's wages, the costs of running factories, etc. Now, GM admits it may drop below $11 billion in cash reserves, the minimum it needs to pay those bills, before the year is out. That means bankruptcy. Ford is slightly doing better, but not by much.

So, can U.S. automakers still stage a comeback? They're already behind on fuel economy and alternative energy. GM has some big projects in the works, but it might not survive long enough to see them through. Millions of jobs are at stake, and President-elect Barack Obama seems to favor providing some aid to automakers. But we'll have to see if taxpayers want to get involved. They're probably still reeling from buyer's remorse after scooping up Fannie Mae and AIG.

Top Story

A historic meeting between Chinese and Taiwanese officials continues in Taipei today. The five-day visit by the top mainland official on cross-strait relations, Chen Yunlin, marks the highest-level talks between Taiwan and the mainland since the two split in 1949. The talks have already yielded an agreement on expanded cross-strait flights, trade, and mail links, and is slated to address greater cooperation in the financial industry.

Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favors independence, is keeping up the pressure with mass protests in Taipei. DPP spokeswoman Cheng Wen-tsang has complained that "people's rights, personal liberties, freedom of speech and judicial rights were seriously violated" by the signing of the agreements.

However, recent DPP measures promoting independence, including a referendum earlier this year that sought the public's approval for Taiwan applying for U.N. membership, have fallen flat. With some 1 million Taiwanese businessmen working on the mainland, more agreements liberalizing trade and travel will likely be the norm.

General News

Flooding and landslides caused by torrential rain kill 51 in southwestern China.

Striking taxi drivers in Chongqing smashed 103 cabs and three police vehicles while protesting the high fees that taxi companies extract from drivers.

A newly proposed regulation could make Aug. 8, the anniversary of the opening of the Olympic Games, a national fitness day and require public sports facilities to admit the public for free.

Politics

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory.

A panel of Chinese experts foresee China becoming a full welfare state with universal health care and old age pensions by mid-century.

Business & Economy

China and other Asian countries are eager to see whether a President Obama will follow through on protectionist campaign promises.

Bright Dairy & Food Co., a major name in the tainted milk scandal, posted a third quarter loss of 277 million RMB (US$41 million), compared to 390 million RMB in profits (US$57 million) a year ago. Other major dairy producers expect similar results.

Science & Environment

China plans to take to the skies with its own commercial jumbo jet before 2020.

In preparation for the 2010 World Expo, Shanghai has enacted new green policies that seek to reduce pollution and stimulate investment in environmental protection.

China Moment

Release the hounds! Er. . . the Chinese public, I mean. A swarm of Chinese Internet users tracked down and humiliated an official accused of assaulting a girl.

Photo: PATRICK LIN/AFP/Getty Images

Top Story

At least three kidnapped Chinese oil workers were killed in the South Kordofan region of Sudan on Tuesday. An unidentified group had been holding nine workers of the China National Petroleum Corporation hostage since Oct. 18. The killings apparently took place after a helicopter flying overhead spooked the kidnappers. Chinese and Sudanese officials are now searching for the other hostages.

The Sudanese government has blamed rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which has fought with government forces in neighboring Darfur for six years, for the violence. While JEM has previously accused China of abetting government-sponsored brutality through oil investments, the group has denied responsibility for the killings.

China has called the incident an "inhumane terrorist deed." However, it seems unlikely the country will use its petroleum agreements to pressure the Sudanese government into ending the Darfur conflict, as many international diplomats have hoped, unless such incidents become commonplace and severely disrupt production.

General News

A new source of concern has emerged for uneasy Chinese consumers as Hong Kong authorities discover excessive amounts of melamine in mainland eggs.

China opened the 6th National Farmers' Games in Fujian province on Sunday. Events include many familiar sports but also tire-pushing, food-carrying, kite-flying, and tug-of-war.

Politics

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao spoke at the China-Russia Economic and Trade Summit in Moscow Tuesday, praising the strength of economic ties between the two countries.

The government ageed to another round of talks with the personal representatives of the Dalai Lama. However, the Dalai Lama admitted that he has given up on trying to convince Beijing to grant Tibet more autonomy.

Business & Economy

The People's Bank of China cut the benchmark interest rate by 27 basis points to 6.66 percent. This marks the third time China has cut rates in the past six weeks.

Net income at PetroChina, Asia's largest oil producer, jumped 30 percent in the third quarter on record oil prices. Meanwhile, Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, suffered a 39 percent drop in profits. The Chinese government's caps on consumer fuel prices prevented the company from offsetting higher oil costs.

China signed a much anticipated oil pipeline deal with Russia on Tuesday. The deal grants China access to Russian oil in exchange for sizeable loans to Russian energy firms.

Science & Environment

Authorities have discovered a series of iron and gold ore deposits in eastern China that may be worth more than 20 billion RMB ($2.92 billion). 

Workers brought the final power-generation turbine online at the Three Gorges Dam, edging the project towards completion a year ahead of schedule.

China Moment

It's the 21st century. Who better to look over your shoulder than your fellow netizens? Thomas Crampton reports on China's freelance Internet censors.

Photo: Isam Al-Haj/AFP/Getty Images